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Achieving good practice in governance
A recent review of the Governance Rules has been conducted to provide a more comprehensive, clear and concise document that is easier for Council to understand their requirements under the new Local Government Act 2020 (Vic) and we would like to would like to hear from you before finalising this document.
Good governance at Council relies on Councillors, Council staff, the Wyndham community and other stakeholders being clear about their role and responsibilities and supporting positive and constructive relationships with each other. The Governance Rules (available to download below) set out how to do this as well as how Council meetings are conducted and how Council decisions are made.
Changes recommended
Inclusion of the need for the nominated Councillor to accept the nomination when elected for Mayor as well as the provision for a Mayoral acceptance speech and for the Mayor to take the Chair postelection.
It is no longer legislated for unscheduled Meetings to be published in a local newspaper and given Wyndham no longer has a widely distributed local newspaper this has been removed and replaced with social media outlets.
There are also inclusions for use of website to notify the public of an adjourned meeting, in the interests of transparency.
A definition for the quorum has been included.
Inclusion of ‘amendment’ to highlight the procedure is the same for both a motion and amendment (for clarity.) The provision for the seconder to reserve the right to speak has also been included.
It is suggested that the time for public questions to be submitted is 12pm rather than 5pm on the day of the meeting to enable sufficient time for responses to be sought from Officers.
The requirement for a petition to be responded to at the next meeting has been replaced with ‘a subsequent meeting’ recognising that some matters may take longer to resolve.
An informal meeting of Council is now defined as having 2 Councillors and a staff member present (for clarity.)
Other administrative changes have also been made, including the correction of numbering and the reference to the Local Government Act 1989 where appropriate.