LOCAL Government Minister David Templeman has urged both the City of Melville and members of the public gallery to show more respect after attending an at times raucous council meeting on Tuesday.
“The meeting certainly attracted a significant number of local residents and ratepayers,” Mr Templeman said.
“People’s passions and concerns about their council were on display and it did get rowdy, and at times fiery.
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“I would expect that greater respect from all parties is required to move forward.
“Lack of respect was unfortunately on display and ultimately detracts from constructive debate being considered on important issues.”
The tone for the evening was set early when Mr Templeman introduced himself to the packed gallery, stating that he intended to visit as many councils as possible during his term and that it was important to “observe democracy in action”.
“Then you’ve come to the wrong place,” shouted someone in the gallery, to a chorus of cheers.
The City of Melville’s policy of taking all questions relating to administrative matters on notice – without reading them out publically or recording them in the subsequent minutes – meant that only 29 of the 82 queries submitted were answered during question time on the night.
Former Melville councillor Effie Nicholson was ejected from the chamber when she refused to take her seat after interrupting proceedings to protest that her questions relating to the City’s purchase of properties in the Canning Bridge Activity Centre were not administrative and deserved to be addressed publically.
Many of the questions that were answered related to the proposed wave park and there was a strong contingent of Alfred Cove Action Group members and supporters visible in the public gallery.
At the end of question time, Mayor Russell Aubrey read out a number of questions that included preambles supportive of the City of Melville from people he had not confirmed were present in the audience, seemingly in contradiction of his usual practice of only answering questions from those in attendance.
A Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries spokesperson would not comment on the City’s question time policy but said it was the duty of the presiding member to foster a culture of mutual respect and that there was a responsibility on both sides to adhere to the rules.
CEO defends City’s process
DEFENDING the City of Melville’s policy of taking administrative questions on notice, chief executive Shayne Silcox said in recent months there had a been a sharp increase in the number of public questions submitted to both agenda briefing forums (ABF) and ordinary council meetings.
“In line with the Local Government Act, an agenda briefing forum is not a prescribed meeting and therefore only public questions relating to strategic and policy direction on an ABF agenda will be provided a response,” he said.
“At an ordinary meeting of council any question relating to the strategic and policy direction of the City, will be presented at the council for response.
“Any question that is deemed to be operational, defamatory or personal by nature, or has been referred to an external agency, will be dealt with by the City’s administration for response and not presented.
“All written records of the City pertaining to public questions and responses are public documents, whether they were recorded in meeting minutes or sent directly in response to the questioner, as per the State Records Act.”
Dr Silcox also said there was no policy preventing questions from non-attendees being read out publically.
“However if a person who submitted a question is not in attendance to hear a response to that question, it will be provided to them in writing to ensure efficiency of time to progress agenda proceedings,” he said.