Central Coast Council is set to trial a new system for the public forum traditionally held immediately prior to Council meetings, which are held monthly on Tuesday nights at 6.30pm.
From next month, the public forum will be moved to the day before Council meetings, to begin at 5pm or 5.30pm on Monday evenings at the Wyong administration building.
The three-month trial will see the time allocated for the public forum expanded to at least a full hour, with the possibility of providing an opportunity for community members to address the forum online rather than in person.
Administrator Rik Hart said the move was about streamlining the public forum process ahead of the election of councillors in September next year.
“We are going to trial something different,” Hart told CCN.
“CEO David Farmer and I have both been in local government for a long time and we have noted that members of the public talking in a forum immediately before the meeting doesn’t really work for them or for the Council.
“A speaker can introduce something quite new which hasn’t been thought about (by Council) and there is no chance for staff to consider it before the meeting begins.”
Hart said when councillors are eventually elected, they would not have a chance to research any issues raised before the meeting under the present system.
“The possible consequence is that you get decisions made on the run,” he said.
Hart said another advantage of a having a longer public forum the day before meetings would allow time allocated to speakers to be increased from the present three minutes to five minutes.
“We will be trialling the new public forum procedure for three months and then hoping to expand it so that people can log into the meeting remotely and have their words heard by Council from their own homes,” he said.
“This would also apply to councillors (once they are elected); some councillors might not be able to attend a public forum the day before a meeting, but they would be able to listen remotely 24 hours before the meeting.
“This would give both staff and councillors the chance to research issues raised.”
Hart said the expanded time for the forum would also allow for members of the public to also raise matters not on the agenda for the next night’s meeting.
“There will also be formal consultation on the new system – but we won’t really know until we give it a go,” he said.
“The intention is (to pave the way) for better governance by a new incoming Council.”
Terry Collins