Council & Business
17 October, 2022
Council meetings to continue online
The Central Goldfields Shire Council will continue to make its council meetings live and accessible online and will consider opening meetings for public question time. At last month’s ordinary council meeting, councillors moved to adopt draft...
The Central Goldfields Shire Council will continue to make its council meetings live and accessible online and will consider opening meetings for public question time.
At last month’s ordinary council meeting, councillors moved to adopt draft amended governance rules relating to virtual council meetings, which have been in place since the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions began in 2020.
According to the report tabled to council, the amendment to the organisation’s governance rules includes provisions for council meetings to continue being held both virtually and in-person in a “hybrid” format, as well as the inclusion for electronic or online petitions and how to declare and handle conflicts of interest while in electronic attendance for councillors, among others.
The report tabled to council states a community engagement process was undertaken prior to the amendments being adopted, with one submission received from the Victorian Pride Lobby and Ratepayers Victoria.
The submission requested that the governance rules be amended to include provisions for public question time at council meetings.
Speaking during the meeting, councillor Grace La Vella said council would consider opening meetings up to question time in the near future.
“This is basically a procedural motion however I’d like to say there was feedback received from the Victorian Pride Lobby and Ratepayers Victoria seeking to allow for public question time at council meetings,” she said.
“It is proposed to consider this request when a broader review is underway of the governance rules, which is coming up very shortly.
“There’s many models we could adopt for those different rules we will be considering.”
The amended governance rules had been studied by council’s audit and risk committee, which councillor Geoff Lovett said approved of.
“I can confirm that council’s audit and risk committee have looked at this document and unanimously approved its adoption,” he said.