Council adopted Governance Rules to inform how it will conduct council meetings and make decisions on 1 September 2020, as required by the Local Government Act 2020.
The new Governance Rules replace the Local Law No 1 – 2013 (Governance Local Law).
Following community consultation on the proposed new rules in July and August 2020, new items include:
- Increasing the number of signatures required for paper petitions to 15
- Accepting e-petitions with at least 50 signatures
- Speaking time reduced to two minutes, facilitating an unlimited number of speakers
- A group or association must nominate only one spokesperson for an issue
- Requests to be heard and questions must be submitted before 9am on the day of a meeting.
Members of the public cannot currently attend or speak at Council and Committee meetings due to COVID-19 restrictions, with meetings held remotely and live-streamed. Alternative arrangements are in place for members of the community to be heard in relation to eligible items listed on the agenda, or to submit a public question.
Following the local government elections in October, these Governance Rules will be reviewed by the new Council within the first year of its term.
Read the new Governance Rules 2020 here.
