10 News First TV News story on 20 July 2022
The Redland City Council meeting on Wednesday 20 July featured in news stories on all four major TV networks broadcasting free to air in Queensland.
The focal point of this extraordinary media attention was Redland City Mayor Karen Williams who is on leave while facing charges of drink driving.
Media coverage included a community protest outside the Council offices calling for the Mayor to resign or be sacked as well as the presentation of four petitions prompted by the Mayor’s alleged drink driving.
Redland City Council’s meetings are governed by a set of rules known as Standing Orders which set out in precise detail how community petitions are to be dealt with in Council meetings.
The Standing Orders require that the councillor presenting a petition must: state the nature of the petition, read the petition and move the relevant motion.
Acting Mayor Julie Talty who was chairing the meeting “blatantly ignored standing orders” by not reading out each petition, as reported by the Redland City Bulletin.
Redland City Council claimed that three of the petitions were “outside of Council’s jurisdiction to enact”.
Environmental corridor protection
The protracted process of protecting environment corridors in the Redland City Plan was discussed again on Wednesday. The Redland City Bulletin reported on the latest delay in:
Major amendments to Redland City Plan to protect native wildlife
Councillors get into the weeds
Redland City’s weed species were discussed at Wednesday’s meeting following a notice of motion from Cr Rowanne McKenzie urging action against the African tulip tree which can be deadly for native bees.
Information about this weed species and other weed trees is available on the Council’s website.
Some councillors wondered why this one species should be singled out for attention when there are dozens of weed species in the Redlands and established programs to deal with them.
Officers will look into the matter and report in November.
Councillors focus on election rules
Redland City councillors have something of a record for trying to make life easier for themselves when it comes to election time.
Before the 2020 local government elections Redland City Council asked the State Government to approve a postal vote only election for Redland City. This request was rejected.
Now the Redland City Councillors are pitching the idea that local councils be allowed to trial elections with reduced or zero vote canvassing and handing out of how to vote cards.
It’s difficult to believe that this concern is prompted by environmental concerns about paper being wasted. More likely it’s so that incumbent councillors don’t have to work so hard to get re-eelected.
This was one of three proposed motions that Redland City Council has voted to put for consideration at the Queensland Local Government Conference in October, as reported by the Redland City Bulletin
The Council also voted that it will be represented at this conference by the Mayor (whoever that may be at the time) and Division 2 councillor Peter Mitchell.
Councillor conduct
During this meeting Cr Lance Hewlett apologised for two instances of misconduct which were determined by the Councillor Conduct Tribunal recently.
During a closed session of the meeting the Council determined that three councillors (Wendy Boglary, Tracey Huges and Adelia Berridge) had engaged in inappropriate conduct due to sending Council related material to their personal email addresses.
Watch the Council meeting on video
You can view what happened during the non-confidential parts of the Council’s 20 July meeting on the Council’s video recording which was posted to the Council website late afternoon of 22 July.
Agenda and minutes for Council meeting
The agenda contents for this meeting are shown below.
The full agenda including officers’ reports for non-confidential items can be found on the Council website.
The meeting minutes which show resolutions adopted by Council and details of how each councillor voted are usually published about a week after the meeting.
Redlands2030 – 24 July 2022
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