Alice Springs Town Council to hold extra meeting a month to speed up decision making
ALICE Springs Town Council will now hold two ordinary meetings a month, instead of one, in a bid to hasten decision making.
Alice Springs
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ALICE Springs Town Council will now hold two ordinary meetings a month in a bid to hasten decision making.
At the August Ordinary meeting, councillors voted to adopt the new meeting structure which replaces the mid-month committee meeting with a second ordinary.
CEO Robert Jennings said the changes would allow the council to be “more responsive to community needs with the greater capacity to make decisions twice monthly as opposed to once per month”.
“The report was developed based on best practice, improving meeting efficiency and puts the focus back on quality decision making to allow for optimum functionality,” he said.
“Public participation and interaction with council meetings and decisions will not be negatively impacted as a result of these changes.”
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The previous council cycle held one committee meeting mid-month and one ordinary meeting at the end of the month, which allowed only one opportunity per month for business of the council to be decided and progressed.
While each ordinary meeting does have a directorate strategic focus, for reporting structure, other matters or reports can be brought to each meeting.
“A more efficient structure will allow for more time spent working towards Council’s strategic objectives, as well as compliance against many legislative requirements,” Mr Jennings said.
Standing Committees hold no benefit to the decision turnaround, Mr Jennings wrote in a business report.
“The current late meeting finish may be partly attributed to this inefficiency,” he said.
Meetings have also been moved from Monday night to Tuesday.
The new start time will be 5.30pm with the open section of these meetings to be completed
no later than 8.30pm.
Commencing Tuesday 29 September the new cycle will be:
– First ordinary of the month – Corporate Services, Community Development or Technical Services (interchanged at 12-week cycles)
– Second ordinary of the month – Finance
Other matters or reports can be brought to each meeting.
Public question time will continue at the commencement of all meetings.
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