Mayor gets powers to deal with disorderly council meetings

A new Model Code of Meeting Practice for local councils will come into effect from the start of next year.

A key change to the code will prevent councils from holding private councillor briefing sessions to discuss matters – unless they are confidential – that should be considered in the public domain at committee and council meetings.

Information considered at a closed meeting will be made public after it ceases to be confidential.

The mayor will have expanded powers to remove councillors from meetings for acts of disorder and also to remove members of the public if they disrupt council meetings.

General managers will no longer have to comment on Notices of Motion in a move to promote neutrality in their role.

Councillors and staff – where physically able to – are being encouraged to stand when the mayor enters the chamber and when addressing the meeting.

The option to attend meetings by audio-visual link has been restricted to where councillors are prevented from attending in person because of ill-health or other medical reasons or because of unforeseen caring responsibilities.

Councils will no longer have the option of reducing the duration of speeches to less than five minutes, a move used at Central Coast Council meetings in recent times.

Mayor Lawrie McKinna wrote to the Office of Local Government with Council’s views of the changes when the code was open for public comment earlier this year.

He said the Central Coast Council did not agree with standing when the mayor entered or restricting audio-visual attendance and wanted to be able to reduce speech times.

Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig said the changes to the meeting code were part of a broader suite of reforms to improve conduct and accountability and rebuild public trust in councils.

A new Code of Conduct for councillors is being finalised as well as associated legislative changes which will see significant changes to how misconduct is dealt with in local government. See separate story here.

Hoenig said the council chamber should be a place of dignity, where debate and decision making took place in full view of the community.

“Making decisions on behalf of communities is the very role of a councillor, and all councillors should never lose sight of this core responsibility,” he said.

“These changes should ensure that, in a council chamber or committee meeting, mechanisms are in place to prevent the derailing of meetings and overshadowing the important work of local government.

“Council and committee meetings must be effective, transparent and genuine, and strive for outcomes to benefit the community.

Minister Hoenig

“Under the new code, mayors should be given the power to take immediate action against disorderly councillors.”

Hoenig said the mayoral power should lessen the need for councils to resort to what he called the “broken code of conduct process” and instead address misbehaviour immediately.

“I know not everyone will agree with these changes, but most people in this state would agree action is necessary to improve transparency, increase community confidence and faith in local government,” he said.

“They will make councillors more visibly in control of their councils to ensure they – as democratically elected representatives of their communities – drive the vision for their local area.”

Local Government NSW (LGNSW) President Mayor Phyllis Miller said the sector supported moves to improve probity and process in all spheres of government.

See her feedback here as well as comments from the two councillors who responded when Coast News emailed all 15 for their response to the new legislation.

Merilyn Vale