Possibility of rural halls hosting meetings of council to be examined in Albany chief executive report

A report examining the option of hosting the City of Albany’s meetings at rural halls will be prepared by the chief executive to be presented to the council later this year. The decision, passed 12-1 on Tuesday, to have a report presented to the council by November came after there was some debate about a motion, tabled by Chris Thomson, calling for the council to take meetings to rural hall annually. The original tabled motion had suggested a tighter timeline, asking for the report to be presented before July 31, and had specified that it should be ordinary council meetings. Amendments put forward by Cr Thomas Brough and Cr Greg Stocks to extend the deadline for the report and remove the stipulation for it to be ordinary council meetings hosted at rural halls took into account discussion amongst councillors. Cr Brough tabled four letters of support for the original motion from community associations, including one which said they would be “delighted to welcome council with warmth and hospitality”. “I hope this amendment helps address some of those worries that some of the other elected members have,” he said. Cr Robert Sutton said he thought it was the original motion was great “on the face of it”, but that he saw a few “glitches”. “How quickly have we gone through as a council tonight on our decisions on financial statements and everything else?” he said. “Pretty quickly, so if we were to have an OCM at one of the halls and we went through it because there is not much discussion, how would we look? “It would be different if it was a normal meeting where we actually debate and have a few goes at it where the policies are being moulded, but to have an OCM where we just skip through because all the work has been done prior in the committee meetings.” Cr John Shanhun and Cr Stocks each referred to the costs and work that was involved when an ordinary meeting was held at the town hall. Cr Stephen Grimmer said he liked the “idea of taking democracy out to rural communities” but he was not sure whether this was the best way to do it. Cr Malcolm Traill said there was a “few divergent views”, but urged councillors to note the motion was asking for a report to be prepared. “We are not actually voting on taking council meetings to rural halls at this point,” he said. Speaking for his motion, Cr Thomson also tabled letters of support and said “holding council meetings at rural community halls would be a powerful demonstration that the City takes communication with Albany’s rural community very seriously”. The November deadline means the report will likely be considered by a new-look council following elections scheduled to take place in October.