A report submitted by Upper Lachlan Shire Council general manager John Bell as part of the April business paper was immediately opposed by councillor Ron Cummins, who argued that the council should be “open to the public”.

On February 19, a workshop led by Local Government NSW facilitator Susan Benedyka recommended the Upper Lachlan Shire Council implement pre-meeting briefing sessions “as soon as possible”.

Mr Bell’s recommendations in the report included holding pre-meeting briefing sessions prior to council meetings on a trial basis, or including information only sections in its business papers. 

“Recent amendments made by the Local Government Act 1993 in August 2017 by the Local Government Amendment Act 2016 provide for a model Code of Meeting Practice to be prescribed by regulation,” the report read.

“One possible advantage of the pre-meeting briefing session is that appropriate managers can attend to answer councillors’ queries regarding the council reports.” 

If passed, the sessions would be conducted on the Monday or Tuesday before the monthly council meeting and organised by the general manager.

Councillors would be expected to attend and disclose conflicts of interest to the general manager, and the meetings would be closed to the public. 

Cr Cummins moved to defer the motion until legal advice was sought.

“I believe we need legal advice before we can proceed with this option,” he said, citing legislation as part of the Local Government Act. 

“Open council meetings keep residents involved. Residents don’t know why we reached a solution because they hadn’t heard discussion.” 

The four options include:

On the night, Mr Bell said that the closed session did not have to be regular and cited existing closed sessions councillors participated in.