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City of Bayswater to raise questions about recommendations in Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council’s review submission

Kristie LimEastern Reporter

CITY of Bayswater is seeking the resolution dates of recommendations made in the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council’s (EMRC) Local Government Act 1995 review submission, after two members revealed they were not consulted before it was sent.

Councillors Sally Palmer and Barry McKenna are Bayswater’s current EMRC representatives.

The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries received EMRC’s submission on March 9.

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At the April 17 committee meeting, the council received the EMRC Delegate’s report, abridged minutes and investment report of the March 22 meeting.

Mayor Dan Bull questioned part of the minutes, which stated Cr Palmer inquired if the EMRC made any submission to the review.

“The (chief executive) confirmed that the EMRC has made a submission and the submission is consistent with what was proposed by council previously,” the minutes read.

The council unanimously passed Cr Bull’s amendment to request chief executive Andrew Brien to write to EMRC chief executive Peter Schneider seeking resolution dates for the items stated in the submission.

Cr Bull said he would be surprised if councillors supported some recommendations in the submission, including the dissolution or partial dissolution of a regional local government, elected member training and the process for terminating the chief executive.

“(In item 2) what it is saying is that the EMRC thinks that there should be people on the EMRC who are not councillors,” he said.

“It just surprises me that councillors would be trying to dilute their voice on a council.”

Cr Palmer said at the previous meeting Mr Schneider told her there was not enough time to tell councillors before he submitted it to the Local Government Act panel.

Cr McKenna said there had been no agenda items about the submission.

“We have not missed a meeting… I do not recall any of what the mayor has said coming up,” he said.

“There was a workshop and we all sat around the table and we were talking about before the meeting about what each council did.”

Deputy Mayor Chris Cornish said his submission was received in November and the City sent in its submission in March after the council discussed the points.

“It has been open for a long time… it was only open in October so I am surprised that the turnover of previous (EMRC) council could have endorsed the content,” he said.

Cr Johnson said it was “astonishing” the EMRC would submit its submission without disclosing it to councillors.

The EMRC declined to comment, as it had not received any correspondence from Mr Brien regarding the submission.

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