Governance Rules 2020

Bass Coast Shire Council adopted its Governance Rules at the August 2020 Council meeting. These shape the way Council delivers public question time, as well as the timelines and conduct of its meetings.

Council offered their Draft rules on 15 July 2020 for community engagement with a very short submission period closing on 30 July 2020. BCRRA had concerns that the new rules would be detrimental to Council’s ability to properly and genuinely engage with the community, and made a submission to Council which you can read below, or download a copy of our submission here.

Our submission was reviewed and these sections of the draft policy were amended in accordance with our request:

  • 3.18 Agenda and Order of Business – The draft Governance Rules have been updated to include consultation with the Mayor in setting the Council meeting agenda.
  • 53.3.2 Public Question Time – The draft Governance Rules have been updated to remove the requirement for electronic submission.
  • 53.7 Disallowance of Questtions – The draft Governance Rules have been updated to remove clauses 53.7.7, 53.7.8, 53.7.9 and 53.7.10. A replacement clause has been included referencing confidential items.
  • 54.4 Number of Petitioners – The draft Governance Rules have been updated to reflect a minimum of 3 petitioners.

The Governance Rules as adopted may be viewed here

BCRRA were also concerned that although the new Governance Rules were intended to be read in conjunction with Council’s Public Transparency Policy, this Policy had not been developed by Council and was not available to the community prior to the submission closing date.

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