HORSHAM council will continue to hold its meetings on a monthly basis despite objections from two councillors.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The council decided to hold its ordinary meetings on a monthly basis rather than fortnightly in July last year.
In September the council resolved to review its meeting procedure in "no less than six months".
Councillors passed a motion at the council's meeting on Monday night to keep frequency of meetings monthly.
Councillor Alethea Gulvin said the change to monthly meetings had been positive.
She said keeping meetings monthly would help attract a "more diverse range" of candidates at next year's council election.
"By allowing us to have more flexibility in what we do and be more inclusive, it would provide more opportunities in the future (for prospective candidates)," she said.
Cr Josh Koenig agreed.
"As a councillor I signed up to be available every fortnight for the ordinary meetings and every Monday for briefings," he said.
"Over the first couple of years it was pretty chaotic and full-on. Trying to make that work was a stretch it's fair to say.
"If you had asked me two years ago what it's like to be on council, as a younger person with a young family, I would have said 'don't do it'. Ask me now, I'd only encourage people to get involved with council."
He said the monthly meetings gave councillors more chance to be informed, and therefore, make the right decisions.
Cr Pam Clarke said the monthly meetings had taken the pressure off councillors who worked full-time or had families. She said it enabled councillors to come into meetings "fully informed".
Cr John Robinson spoke against the motion.
"If you look at tonight's agenda it's almost 1000 pages and in it is some pretty critical stuff. I challenge anyone to get a full grasp of everything in there," he said.
"I don't think we are doing the right thing by our community. If you recall the last two satisfaction surveys, the community was very critical of council."
See council's June 2019 meeting agenda below
Cr David Grimble brought up a issue about how long councillors were allowed to speak to motions.
"Agendas like we have tonight require debate, engagement and time," he said.
"There's an issue also around councillor reports. We've been requested to provide reports in dot-point form and we cannot speak to the reports, which gives councillors no opportunity to talk about some of the issues we'd like to raise."
Cr Grimble also raised an issue about the number of council motions and meetings that were confidential.
Crs Clarke, Gulvin, Koenig, Les Power and Mark Radford voted in favour to keep ordinary meetings monthly. Crs Robinson and Grimble voted against the motion.
Cr Grimble later moved a motion to request that council chief executive Sunil Bhalla provide the council with an operational report on meeting procedures at a future meeting.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox twice weekly from the Wimmera Mail-Times. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Wimmera, sign up below.