Notice of Motion in Glen Eira- proposed introduction

A Notice of Motion is where councillors in line within prescibed guidelines can have an item placed on a council meeting agenda. Glen Eira is one of a very few councils that doesn't provide for this option in their local laws.

In item 9.11 on this Monday nights council meeting there is a report on this issue- I propose to move an alternative motion that will provide for this in our local law as explained in an email sent to all councillors earlier today.

"I will be seeking support on Monday night for Glen Eira to (re)introduce a notice of motion into its local law- Proposed alternate motion 9.11- that

1. Council supports the introduction of a new local law that provides councillors with a notice of motion provision.
2. Council requests the Local Law Committee draft this new local law .

As i understand the vast majority of councils in Victoria have this option available - as of 18mths ago 76 out of 79 did with Glen Eira ,Port Phillip and Maribrynong the only ones not to. Not aware of changes since then.

The premise of the 9.11 report seems to be that we as councillors aren't capable of responsibily utilising this option-

I would disagree , all our other benchmark councils provide Crs with this procedure of introducing items onto the council agenda.I feel we should be accorded the same agenda options as the vast majority of our fellow crs and have greater faith in us as elected community representatives than the report would suggest.

A notice of motion does give more opportunity for Crs to raise issues that aren't of the 'majority' view or need 'majority' approval- in my mind a healthy and desirable feature of local govt that encourages diverse debate on a wider range of issues and goes some way to alleviate majority blocs controlling agendas -

Both Kingston and Bayside have for example clear guidelines that easily negate any of the so-called technical hurdles raised in the report.

Urgent Business has to be deemed just that - Requesting a report- turnaround is dependent on officers availablity and workload-
- As elected community representatives i feel we are responsible enough to raise any important issue in a constructive and timely way. A notice of motion encourages this and should be reintroduced back into our local law".

welcome your comments and support