THE changes made to Horsham Rural City Council’s frequency of meetings and its procedures will be subjected to a review.
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It comes after councillor David Grimble’s motion to rescind the changes to the council’s meeting procedure was defeated at a meeting on Monday night.
Cr Grimble moved a motion to review the frequency of council meetings and local laws in six months.
Councillors voted to reduce its meetings from twice to once a month at a meeting on July 16. The council also voted in favour to adopt the meeting procedure’s changes on August 27.
Cr Grimble said that he “loathed” the changes made by the council because it compromised his ability to represent the community. He said the change has denied him the chance to speak freely and transferred the councillor’s responsibilities to the council’s officers.
Cr Grimble said the council has the ability to reflect on its decision to change the frequency and procedure of its meetings.
“I am telling them that it is not right and in six months time hopefully they can see the wisdom and consider a review in how we conduct our affairs,” he said.
Councillor John Robinson said the council appeared to have ignored the community when making this decision. He said 17 submissions were received about the meeting procedure’s changes, which overwhelmingly were against the decision.
“I thought we would have taken a big message from the community satisfaction survey,” he said. “We seem to be ignoring the community and doing so at our own perl.”
Mayor Pam Clarke said the new meeting procedure would allow councillors to make informed decisions.
“We are not shutting anyone down. Anyone can bring issues to the group to be discussed in an open forum and if there is a need for a report to come to the council it can – fully researched and clearly articulated,” she said.
“What we have had in the last 20 months are motions from the floor on a regular basis. Informed decision making is when we have the research and not making decisions off-the-cuff.”
Councillor Josh Koenig said he stood by his comments from the previous council meeting and supported the change.
“The chief executive has done his due diligence. If we aren’t happy about the decision in the long-term we can come back and spend another half an hour on it again,” he said.
Councillor Les Power said the decision to change the frequency and procedure of its meeting was not “set in stone.”
“If other councils are doing something different and we can see the value in that surely we can try it,” he said. “We need to be progressive, but if it doesn’t work we can change it.”
Councillor Mark Radford agreed that the decision could be reviewed and changed if the new process was not working.
Councillor Alethea Gulvin, Clarke, Radford, Power, Koenig, Robinson and Grimble supported the review of its meeting frequency and local laws in six months.