Past meetings of Council have seen a pronounced decline in behavioural standards amongst a small group of Councillors and persons in the Public Gallery. This has led to meetings being unacceptably unruly, disruptive and unpleasant. In particular, there have been a number of instances where these Councillors or persons in the Public Gallery have completely disregarded the rulings or directions of the previous Mayor. A number of complaints have been made in response to this conduct.
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.
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.
At the 31 May 2016 Council meeting I proposed to Council that an Independent Governance and Behaviour Monitor be appointed by Council to observe all remaining Council meetings of this term.
This is an accountability measure designed to monitor adherence by councillors and others attending Council meetings of the behavioural standards required of all persons attending Council meetings. In particular, it is intended to monitor adherence to the increased accountability requirements introduced by the Supplementary Standing Orders.
Council accepted my recommendation to appoint Russell Hannan as the Independent Governance and Behaviour Monitor. Mr Hannan is impeccably qualified for this role. He is a former councillor and mayor of the City of Waverley, where he served as a councillor for 15 years. He is highly regarded in the local community and has previously consulted to other councils. Mr Hannan is a former president of the Victorian Liberal Party and continues to serve as its state Treasurer. There can be no suggestion that his scrutiny of my performance as chair could be anything other than impartial.
I am not aware of any other council ever voluntarily choosing to appoint such a monitoring position before. This demonstrates a commitment to improving our meetings by embracing such a purposeful accountability mechanism. The Monitor will provide monthly reports to Council, will be available to attend a Council briefing meeting following each formal Council meeting to discuss the meeting further with councillors and will provide insight and comment on the following:
- the implementation of the Supplementary Standing Orders;
- the behaviour of individual Councillors – including identifying and reporting on any conduct which falls short of the requirements of Local Law No 1, the Supplementary Standing Orders and the Act; and
- the behaviour of persons in the Public Gallery – including identifying and reporting on any conduct which falls short of the requirements of Local Law No 1, the Supplementary Standing Orders and the Act.
I also proposed that the Monitor be specifically tasked with monitoring and commenting specifically on my performance as chairperson of Council meetings and whether I have been:
- fair and consistent in applying the requirements of Local Law No 1, the Supplementary Standing Orders and the Local Government Act 1989 (the Act);
- biased in my treatment of any councillor or any person in the Public Gallery; or
- unreasonable in any way in my approach to any person in making any request, direction or order of them.
It is important to hold me as chairperson of our meetings to account for taking a fair and unbiased approach to the running of Council’s meetings.
I believe that past mayors have been fair and unbiased in their management of Council meetings. However, I am aware that they have often been (unfairly in my view) accused of being otherwise. The Monitor is an independent way of verifying this in future and I hope this will help to fortify the confidence which everyone can have in Council’s meeting processes going forward.
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