I draw you attention to statements in an Email I received from the Mayor of Bundaberg Regional Council on the Secret Meeting issues raised by Cr. Barnes. She states: ‘No votes are taken at these sessions. No minutes are kept. The CEO chairs the sessions (not me)’.
So we have the Mayor confirming that at a meeting, which is not a meeting, no votes are taken, no minutes are kept and the CEO, not the Mayor, chairs the meeting. Yet she states ‘These sessions are not formal meetings and no decisions are made’. However then goes on to say that they ‘provide a structured opportunity’ are… ‘briefing sessions’, yet remember she states ‘No votes are taken at these sessions. No minutes are kept’.
So what these ‘sessions’ really are, effectively, is a form of party politics cabinet meetings, where decisions are made before the vote of the floor of the Council, and the actual meeting of Council is a showcase, not dissimilar from their Federal and State counterparts.
The Mayor further states that ‘all debate between elected members must take place on the floor of the Council Chambers’, so is she saying that no debate is undertaken in these – ‘unstructured – briefing sessions’ that have the CEO as a Chair of the meeting?
If there is no debate at these meetings then what are they for? The excuse of being briefed by junior officers, for me doesn’t hold water and the old chestnut of the public hearing the debate in full council is a red hearing, as there is no debate to be had, the non-seconder of Cr. Barnes motion to stop the secret meetings is a clear and glaring example of this. When not one other Councillor could bring themselves to second Cr. Barnes motion to at least have some ‘open’ debate on the subject.
It seems to me that Cr. Barnes is onto something regarding the ‘secret’ meetings of Council and that it is not the Mayor who is in control of the Council.
No comments:
Post a Comment