Open briefings a “Clayton’s proposal”
A move to open Baw Baw Shire’s briefing sessions to the community has been criticised by a resident who called on council for more transparency.
Council last week decided to extend its community participation time to allow community members to attend a briefing session.
Community members will be able to attend one briefing session a month to hear officers’ presentation of one item or topic selected by council and engage with council on that topic.
But, it is a move that Warragul resident Don McLean said failed to give the community confidence of change.
Mr McLean has been vocal in his calls for more open and transparent council briefing sessions.
When council agreed to the new format last week, it said the trial would “increase transparency and engagement with the community on matters of strategic and community importance.”
Briefings are held regularly to allow councillors to receive information from senior officers about matters before they are debated in council.
“These briefings ensure that councillors are well informed and in the best possible position to debate matters effectively at the council meeting,” the report said.
The trial will begin on March 11 and run until midSeptember, which marks the beginning of the 2020 council election period.
The format for each open community briefing will be determined by the mayor and chief executive officer.
Mr McLean said the community briefing review looked good until he read what was on offer.
He described it as a “Clayton’s” proposal for increased transparency, where for a one hour maximum, on one day per month, one topic selected by the mayor and ceo will be discussed.
“Access to councillor briefings is the ideal position for council and the community. It is understood some matters of a legal and confidential nature would not be open to the public.
“For the other items, councillors could be briefed with members of the community present, that they may also be well informed.
“Sadly, the change recommended does nothing to give confidence that anything will change and we will continue to have the vast bulk of matters to come before council considered behind closed doors.
“If council wants to lift itself above one of the poorest performing councils in the state, a great start will be to open up the closed shop briefings,” Mr McLean said.
Mayor Danny Goss said over the past few years council had significantly reduced the number of matters discussed in closed council meetings and these were now a rare occurrence.
“By introducing monthly open community briefings, we hope to further increase transparency with our governance processes and improve community engagement on important matters,” he said.
Councillors voted unanimously for the trial.
Cr Joe Gauci said council was desperately trying to be open and provide as much information to the community as possible.
He said while the mayor and CEO may decide what matter will be open for discussion, if councillors felt strongly about an issue then it would be a group decision.
“We aren’t being dictated to, all councillors will have a say,” he said.
Cr Mikaela Power said she hoped community members got on board and put forward ideas for briefings.
“There is always power in debate and we hear about things we haven’t thought of before,” she said.
Cr Darren Wallace said he felt like it was a motion to satisfy one person and it hadn’t gone out for community discussion.
“Our community might not want this,” he said.
Cr Michael Leaney said briefings were “dull, dull, dull.” “If the aim is to bore our constituents it will work.”
Cr Jessica O’Donnell said it was right to give people the opportunity to attend.
“There are people out there who are policy nerds like me and people who want to know more about local government,” she said.
In a report to council, officers said good governance was important for providing the local community with confidence in the decision making process.
Officers said the proposed new Local Government Act will require all councils to have a community transparency policy.