Kerr outlines council’s transparency drive

Community

Howard Salkow

Senior Journalist

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Mayor Michael Kerr says that he's always looking at ways council can be more transparent. Image: Karlie Brady

Douglas Shire Council will be following the lead of other local councils if they agree to establish a Council Meeting where members of the public can voice their opinions directly to elected members.

This will be tabled at the September 28 Ordinary Meeting.

At the most recent open meeting, the Councillors voted to direct the Chief Executive Officer to bring a report to the September meeting outlining what the proposed Building Douglas Committee Meetings are and how they would work.

It is designed to increase Councillors’ direct engagement with the public and improve transparency in decision making.

In outlining the proposed initiative, Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr said the mayoral minute that was put through at the last Ordinary meeting was to request that the CEO prepare a report that would allow Douglas Shire Council to create a modified second council meeting each month.

“The Building Douglas Committee, as it has pre-emptively been called, would run similar to the normal meetings with all councillors in attendance as the committee representatives, but allow more two-way dialogue between rate payers and councillors than the legislative requirements of the Ordinary Council Meetings.

“Many other Councils have these Standing Committees as they are called in the legislation and operate under Section 264 of the Queensland Local Government Regulations. Many use them as a way of dealing with various departments when Councillors have Portfolios. For example, Cairns Council has one for Planning and Environment and another for community, sports, events, and Cultural Services,” said Kerr.

Kerr said these Standing Committees allow for a more relaxed meeting which follows its own procedures rather than that of the more regimented Standing Orders of the Ordinary Council Meeting.

“This will allow us to draw up our own procedures for this Committee meeting such as allowing numerous members of the public if required the opportunity to attend and be able to add their comments to the agenda item that sits before the committee, giving councillors more detail by those directly affected by the decision that we may make.

“Items can then be deferred to the Ordinary Council for a final decision after more information is brought forward from the committee discussions or can be moved and adopted by the quorum of councillors at the Building Douglas Committee meeting,” he said.

Walk the talk

Kerr said we are constantly looking at ways that council can be more transparent and offer our rate payers more opportunity to interact and consult with the councillors.

“I believe that this would be a great way forward for council to show we are walking the talk,” said Kerr.

Last year, Fraser Coast Regional Council introduced a number of changes to its meeting procedures opening more to the public and allowing more Council debate and decisions to be seen by residents.

“We are the first local government in Queensland to introduce this level of transparency,” said Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour.

He said the changes are modelled in part on the Western Australian local government system, which is considered best practice in transparency.

“We are opening doors so residents can see what we discuss, so they can see and understand how Council and Councillors came to a decision,” said Cr Seymour.

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