The following is my acceptance speech upon being elected mayor on 4 May 2016 to fill the vacancy in the position which had occurred by the previous mayor’s resignation at the April Council meeting.
I thank my colleagues for their support.
I want to make it clear at the outset that this is not a position I have had any particular desire to do again. But in the circumstances of a vacancy occurring mid-term and unexpectedly, and given the worrying decline in behaviour at recent meetings, I think it is important that someone with the experience of having done it before assume the role.
Regrettably, now is no time for a new and inexperienced mayor to take on what should actually be an exciting opportunity which they can fondly look back on over their lifetime.
I am pleased to have the support of most councillors around this table to now explicitly and intentionally act to arrest this decline.
Ensuring the orderly, respectful and efficient transaction of Council business will be my chief focus over the few short months that I will occupy this role.
Everyone can expect to see some immediate changes to how our meetings are conducted. Changes for the better to ensure Council’s responsibilities to govern effectively are realised rather than thwarted and disregarded.
The following will have no place in this chamber from this point forward:
- disorderly conduct from either councillors or members of the public gallery;
- ignoring Council’s meeting procedures or the rulings of the chair;
- personal attacks on others – particularly on Council officers; and
- Council meetings extending well past reasonable finishing times.
It will be my aim, starting tonight, to lift the standards of our meetings to the sort of conduct which those who have elected us to serve them around this table rightly expect.
I was not at the last Council meeting, but the reports I have received from multiple councillors, officers and members of the public have concerned me greatly. I do not want to go back over past ground, and others can form their own views about where fault reasonably lies for past actions, however I will be focused on chairing the remaining meetings left in this term to ensure:
- this is a kinder, gentler place;
- there is freedom of debate and discussion, but within reasonable boundaries;
- Council business is dealt with efficiently; and
- officers and councillors are protected from personal attack and aggressive conduct.
At the next ordinary meeting of Council, I will be seeking the support of all councillors around this table to do two things.
Firstly, to adopt a new, significantly strengthened Councillor Code of Conduct which will set clear standards of councillor behaviour and as well as specific consequences for behaviour which falls below this standard.
And secondly, to support a series of new measures to ensure the efficient conduct of our meetings.
Among these measures, I want councillors to agree that we will work together to try our best to keep future meetings to finishing by 10.00 pm as expected by our Local Law No 1.
However, I acknowledge that with 11 councillors, a healthy divergence of viewpoints and sometimes a number of significant items listed on our agenda, this may not always be possible. But a meeting going past 10.00 pm should be the exception and not the norm it has become in recent times.
Indeed, this experience of meetings extending well past 11.00 pm – and on one occasion until 3.00 am – should, frankly, not be tolerated. This is unreasonable for everyone – particularly members of the public who have an interest in a matter on our agenda, for local media who have an important role to play in covering our meetings and for Council officers who in some instances have been at work since prior to 7.00 am that morning and will be there again just a few hours later.
This Council has occupational health and safety obligations to ensure that our staff, as well as each other, are not put at unreasonable risk because of the meeting practices which we adopt. It is not hard to imagine how an unspeakable tragedy could arise when fatigued members of staff are travelling home from their workplace in such circumstances.
So at the next meeting, I will be asking Council to agree that while 10.00 pm will be the desired latest time by which future meetings will conclude, 11.00 pm will be the absolute latest time that any future meeting will be permitted to run until. If a meeting is not finished by 11.00 pm, no meeting which I am chairing will continue past that time and any business remaining will be adjourned until another day.
But it will be my goal as mayor to ensure this does not occur. That is why I will also be asking Council to agree to a number of proactive steps to better manage our meetings.
I will be seeking Council’s agreement to refuse to consider any matters placed on our agenda which have previously been dealt with by Council unless a majority of councillors specifically want the matter reconsidered. The belligerent re-hashing and re-litigating of past decisions which have been duly determined by Council has been a consistent theme in recent meetings which have drifted long past 10.00 pm. It is time for these distractions from transacting the important business of this Council to stop.
Further, I will also be asking Council that if we reach 9.30 pm at any meeting and it looks from the business remaining that the meeting will not be finished by 10.00 pm, that the time limit for all speakers be reduced from five minutes to two minutes for the remainder of the meeting. This aims to strike a balance between allowing opportunity for contribution and debate, while also ensuring that the business of the meeting can be completed that night.
In conclusion, our challenge, councillors, over the next five months is to significantly improve our meeting performance. Every one of us has a role to play in achieving this and, upon the adoption of a new Councillor Code of Conduct which I will propose to the next meeting, we will each be held to account for our individual actions.
To the members of the Public Gallery, who are also an important part of the effective functioning of these meetings – this is your challenge as well. You are a valued part of these meetings, but insults and verbal outbursts have no place in this chamber. Interjections from the public gallery must stop and will no longer be tolerated, excused or ignored.
These measures – if approved by councillors at our next meeting – together with our Local Law governing meeting procedures, will be applied without fear or favour by me, to the best of my ability, and in the interests of lifting the governance performance of this place. And I seek all of your cooperation as well to assist us in collectively meeting the expectations of our community over the four remaining meetings of this Council term. Thank you.
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