Wyndham council has settled on how it will delegate its powers to officers, but not before debate and confusion in the chamber.
At the Tuesday 28 October meeting, council had to vote on a report outlining what powers it handed over to its executive team, different departments and groups it is part of– a process mandated by the state government within a year of each election.
While officially speaking for the motion, Cr Robert Szatkowski said he felt councillors were not involved enough in writing the report and the briefing sessions were inadequate.
“The delegations have now arrived in the chamber in a format that reality doesn’t give us any time or opportunity to thoroughly investigate or look through these delegations in detail,” Cr Szatkowski said.
Cr Peter Maynard said he agreed with the majority of the delegations but had reservations about increasing the delegation to the chief executive for projects more than $5 million to $10 million.
Cr Josh Gilligan said he believed it was only supposed to be a delegation of $2.5 million and did not support a four-fold increase.
Governance confirmed the $10 million delegation power in question actually referred to the director of planning’s applications.
Cr Gilligan said he was concerned as to why the report had no rationale to justify the change.
‘It does not address the question– nor has it ever been answered– about why officers are seeking to give themselves the power back to deal with matters where they are generally [done] in accordance with a development plan,” Cr Gilligan said.
The debate was adjourned until the end of the meeting.
Cr Gilligan moved an amended version of the report to reduce the planning director’s delegation back to $5 million, which was backed by Cr Peter Maynard.
Cr Jennie Barrera defended the organisation by saying $10 million was already a compromise from the original $20 million figure and that councillors had been well informed of the proposed change.
The amended motion won, but not before Cr Maria King tried to foreshadow an alternative to change the amount to $7 million amid giggles from across the chamber.
Cr Mia Shaw had the last words: “7.7 is done.”
