Councillors want detail, detail, detail

The first meeting of the new Central Coast Councillors called for more details on four of the items on the agenda.

While the meeting was primarily to elect the mayor and deputy mayor, after the councillors took the oath of office another six items were voted on and four of them were deferred for more information.

The Constitutional Referendum was discussed, with councillors voting for more details of council’s community engagement leading up to the referendum including information about promotion, education, engagement and reach.

The referendum held on September 14 along with the election was declared passed with a result of 62 per cent of people voting yes to the question of whether voters favoured a reduction in the number of councillors from 15 to nine and the number of wards from five to three.

Cr Kyle MacGregor said it was quite clear from standing at voting polls that the vast majority didn’t know it was on.

He said it was the last act of the administrator to destroy local democracy, a smash and grab for more centralised power.

The majority of councillors agreed to the Motion for more information on how it was promoted and also whether it was beyond the administrator’s remit to even suggest it.

Council was under administration when Interim Administrator Dick Persson first introduced the idea for the referendum and the next Administrator Rik Hart endorsed it.

The next item was about the delegations of the CEO.

Councillors wanted a fuller idea of the extent of the delegations and what they meant before they would endorse the recommendation to note those delegations.

CEO David Farmer was given the delegations in April 2021 and they are not changed by this decision.

Cr Jane Smith called for the detail, giving an example of a former CEO of Gosford Council having a change in his delegations approved and the very next day under delegation giving approval to what “was essentially a chicken processing abbatoir in our drinking water”.

She said that “was unexpected”.

Cr Smith suggested the newly elected Mayor, Lawrie McKinna who was chairing the meeting, might remember the incident as he was a councillor at Gosford at the time.

She wanted a fuller explanation of what the delegations meant and if there were any changes to the delegations under administration.

There was no opposition. The move to defer the matter for more detail was unanimous.

Cr MacGregor asked if the mayoral delegations should also be deferred.

CEO David Farmer said the traditional delegations such as exercising functions of the council if needed, and media statements should be allowed.

Cr MacGregor asked if there were any variations to the proposed mayoral delegations to the administrator’s delegations.

Farmer said he thought not but he was not sure.

The meeting went ahead and adopted the mayoral delegations but because Council is under a Performance Improvement Order (PIO), the Deputy Secretary of the Office of Local Government must agree before those functions were delegated by Council to the Mayor.

The dates and timing of meetings in 2025 was deferred.

Cr Smith asked for a consideration for a change in the meeting place at times, saying some residents found it quite challenging to attend meetings at Wyong as it was so far from their homes.

She was happy to lock in the first six months of meeting dates as set out in the recommendation from the staff but for the CEO to provide a report on options to look at meetings in the second half of the year being held further south.

Cr Smith mentioned a potential site could be the new regional library in Gosford which is due to open in the first half of next year.

She also flagged that more meetings might need to be scheduled.

Deputy Mayor Doug Eaton said the decision should be deferred and the rest of the councillors agreed with him.

He agreed there was a likelihood that the councillors would need two meetings a month at times.

At this stage, the meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of the month.

Cr Trent McWaide said he agreed that some meetings should be held “down south”.

Further decisions on the meetings will be made at the next meeting, on Tuesday October 29.

Merilyn Vale