{"id":281056,"date":"2020-10-14T22:24:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T12:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=281056"},"modified":"2020-10-14T22:27:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T12:27:48","slug":"major-shake-up-at-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/10\/14\/major-shake-up-at-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Shake-Up At Council"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The South Burnett Regional Council will move from closed-door Portfolio meetings to public Standing Committee meetings from November 1 with the aim of making Council decision-making more open and transparent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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South Burnett Mayor Brett Otto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

October 14, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

A decision to scrap closed-door portfolio meetings in favour of livestreamed standing committees will usher in a new era of transparency at the South Burnett Regional Council.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s monthly meeting, Councillors voted to scrap weekly portfolio meetings in favour of the standing committee model.<\/p>\n

Three new committees will cover the areas of Infrastructure, Executive and Community Services, and Finance and Corporate Matters.<\/p>\n

All Councillors will be members of each committee, with Mayor Brett Otto acting as chairman, or if he is absent, Deputy Mayor Gavin Jones.<\/p>\n

Decisions made by each standing committee will then be passed on to the Council’s next monthly general meeting for ratification.<\/p>\n

CEO Mark Pitt said standing committees were preferable to general meetings for several reasons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One was that they are public – unlike portfolio meetings which have been held since the portfolio system was introduced in 2012 – and another was that discussions would be more free-flowing.<\/p>\n

Mr Pitt said at monthly general meetings, motions were tabled and seconded, and then Councillors could speak for or against them.<\/p>\n

Standing committees, by contrast, were less bound by the formal rules that surrounded general meetings.<\/p>\n

Mr Pitt believed this informality would allow Councillors to exchange ideas and opinions more freely.<\/p>\n

And as the standing committee meetings would be open to the public and livestreamed, they might help give residents a better idea of how and why decisions were arrived at.<\/p>\n

Only confidential matters as outlined in Section 275 of the Local Government Regulation 2012 would be held in camera, the same as they are at general meetings.<\/p>\n

Mayor Brett Otto told southburnett.com.au the change was partly motivated by the most recent Belcarra reforms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the latest tranche of reforms didn’t mandate standing committees, he said the thrust of Belcarra was to promote ethical, accountable and transparent decision-making in local government in the interests of good governance.<\/p>\n

This was something he supported.<\/p>\n

A similar committee system operates at Toowoomba Regional Council.<\/p>\n

The SBRC’s new standing committee system will be run on a trial basis from November 1 to December 31, with one standing committee meeting held each Wednesday and the Council’s monthly general meeting ratifying each committee’s decisions on the fourth Wednesday.<\/p>\n

After this trial, the SBRC will adopt a formal schedule of dates, times and locations for future meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A decision to scrap closed-door portfolio meetings in favour of livestreamed standing committees will usher in a new era of transparency at the South Burnett Regional Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":257956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,3],"tags":[1131],"yoast_head":"\nMajor Shake-Up At Council - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A decision to scrap closed-door portfolio meetings in favour of livestreamed standing committees will usher in a new era of transparency at the South Burnett Regional Council.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/10\/14\/major-shake-up-at-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Major Shake-Up At Council - 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