Upon my election to fill the vacancy in the position of Mayor three weeks ago, I signalled to Council and the community that restoring the orderly and respectful functioning of Council meetings would be my main focus in the role.
Preceding my election as mayor, the previous three meetings of Council had finished at midnight, 3.00 am and 11.30 pm, respectively, which are well past the latest finishing time contemplated by Local Law No 1 of 10.00 pm. This concerning trend of excessively late finishing times indicates that Council is not managing the business being transacted at its meetings as effectively as possible.
It is important that Council takes action to restore its authority over the conduct of its meetings. It is also important that Council better manage the transaction of business at its meetings to ensure that meetings are not finishing at such unreasonably late times.
At the Council meeting of 31 May 2016, as part of a suite of reforms to our meetings, I proposed a number of changes to improve the efficiency and conduct of our meetings.
Excessively late finishing times are unreasonable for everyone – particularly members of the public who have an interest in a matter on Council’s 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 on the morning of a Council meeting and need to return again just a few hours later following the meeting. Council has occupational health and safety obligations to ensure that our staff, as well as councillors, are not put at unreasonable risk because of the meeting practices which we adopt. It is not difficult to imagine how a terrible tragedy could arise when fatigued people are travelling home from their workplace in such circumstances.
Accordingly, I proposed that Council agree that while 10.00 pm will continue be the desired latest time by which future meetings will conclude, 11.00 pm will be the absolute latest time that any meeting will be permitted to run until. If a meeting is not finished by 11.00 pm, any business remaining will be adjourned until the following Tuesday.
But it is my responsibility as mayor in managing Council meetings to ensure that this does not occur. That is why I am proposing in the Supplementary Standing Orders that Council resolves, up front, an intent to take proactive steps in certain situations which have frustrated meetings in recent times, in order to better manage our meetings.
Firstly, I am proposing that if Council reaches 9.00 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 three minutes for the remainder of that 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.
Local Law No 1 provides for speaker time limits of five minutes so I have expressed this as an ‘intent’ rather than a requirement so it is not at odds with Local Law No 1. Accordingly, if this measure is adopted by Council, and in the event of it arising at a future meeting, if a councillor insists on speaking longer than three minutes, I am proposing that this will be dealt with by the chairperson of the meeting proposing a Procedural Motion that the speaker no longer be heard (as is currently possible under Local Law No 1). It is then a matter for councillors to either vote up or down that Procedural Motion as it sees fit. However, if Council supports this ‘intent’ being included in the Supplementary Standing Orders to give effect to Council’s determination to improve the efficient operation of our meetings, I would urge councillors to support such a Procedural Motion whenever it should arise in future to ensure consistency.
Secondly, I am proposing that Council also resolves its intention to refuse to consider any matters placed before Council which have previously been largely 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 business of this Council stop.
Similarly to time limits, it is proposed that this matter will be dealt with by a Procedural Motion that a particular offending motion or amendment not be considered by Council.
Finally, I also note that Council has separately decided that, from the July meeting onwards, all Council meetings will commence 30 minutes earlier at 7.00 pm rather than the usual start time of 7.30 pm which will also help to achieve reasonable finishing times.
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