Mornington Peninsula Shire brings in external expert to make meetings ‘run smoothly’
Ratepayers are facing a hefty bill after Mornington Peninsula Shire turned to a top Melbourne law firm to help “babysit” the mayor and councillors during meetings.
South East
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A Victorian council has called in the lawyers to help run meetings in a move believed to be costing ratepayers thousands of dollars.
Maddocks partner, Kate Oliver, who specialises in governance for local councils, has been working with Mornington Peninsula Shire and attended its June 11 meeting to offer “advice and support”.
The going rate for a partner at a large Victorian firm is about $800.
The council has not yet revealed how much the initiative was costing ratepayers, however the Herald Sun understands it was likely to be at least $10,000.
The shire’s call for back up followed a series of lengthy council meetings this year including a budget meeting that lasted nine and half hours over two days, an ordinary meeting that required three attempts to complete and another that took almost two weeks to finish.
Ratepayer group Council Watch said the council was on the “precipice of needing a monitor”.
“The dysfunction, political posturing and grandstanding by councillors is upsetting the community which just wants responsible delivery of services and less ideology,” president Dean Hurlston said.
“To have such a well respected and experienced partner of Maddocks babysitting councillors says everything about this group burning ratepayers money to fix their dysfunction.”
Of the 11 ordinary meetings held this year, seven have been adjourned and no night meeting has been completed without an extension of time.
Council meetings are not allowed to go beyond 10.30pm and if a meeting was expected to run later than 10pm the council must vote to extend the deadline for another 30 minutes.
The Herald Sun was told it was hoped an external expert would help meetings run “more smoothly” and end “marathon meetings” currently being experienced by the shire.
Ms Oliver was seen sitting alongside Mr Brooks during the June 11 meeting, which began at 6.30pm and was adjourned until the following morning when councillors still had items left on the agenda at 10.27pm.
During the meeting Ms Oliver appeared to advise Mr Brooks ahead of a casting vote needed to break a tied vote for a proposed amendment to the Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review.
Mr Brooks spoke to Ms Oliver off microphone for about 20 seconds before telling the chamber he had the casting vote.
“I’ve just conferred with governance and can confirm my original vote to vote against,” he told the chamber.
The casting vote meant an amendment from councillor Antonella Celi to remove four properties, including a hangar at Tyabb Airport from the heritage review, was lost.
Despite Ms Oliver’s presence on June 11, the councillors were unable to complete their agenda, even after voting to extend the meeting to 10.30pm.
The meeting was adjourned to 10am the following day where it took another two hours to finalise the agenda.
Mr Brooks has been contacted.