Ballarat City Council could meet every month instead of fortnightly.
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A motion was passed – voted upon enthusiastically by some councillors – to investigate potential cost savings in holding chamber meetings less often, be it every three weeks or every month.
Councillor Vicki Coltman brought the motion.
She said it could help with the belt-tightening associated with the rate increase cap.
“There’s been a lot of discussion around rate-capping, rates and peoples’ trips and all sorts of things...one thing we thing we need to do as a council; we need to lead by example and certainly one of these costs councils have is the frequency of our meetings,” she said.
“Not many councils do fortnightly meetings. We’ve talked about it for three years, changing the meeting cycle.”
The City of Bendigo holds meetings every three weeks while the Greater Shepparton, Wodonga and Mildura city councils hold meetings monthly.
Additionally, the report will consider making it easier for residents to meet with councillors at the meetings.
“I’d like to know what opportunities there would be for one of our meeting nights to actually allow community members to come and talk to us as opposed to just ask a question and get no responses,” Cr Coltman said.
We need to lead by example and certainly one of these costs councils have is the frequency of our meetings.
- Councillor Vicki Coltman
Currently council meeting rules allow people to ask two questions during public question time. The motion recent list had 10 questions on notice outstanding, with council indicating it had answered or would soon try and answer most of the queries. Most relate to longstanding council-related issues.
- The City of Ballarat will place Wadawurrung acknowledgement plaques on 11 major buildings around town, after councillors voted in favour of the plan on Wednesday night. They will say the building stands on Wadawurrung land and pay respect to their Elders, past and present. The artwork for the plaques will be done by a Wadawurrung artist. The timing will depend on consultation with Heritage Victoria.