Have your say at Council: Raise your concerns directly with Councillors this Tuesday
Updated: Apr 19, 2021
The Eurobodalla Council holds what they call a public access session once per month.
It starts at 9:15am in the Council Chamber at Moruya and runs for an hour.
NOTE: Disappointingly, DUE TO COVID, the Council has decided it will use ZOOM for the Public Access session. Register to watch 02 4474 1358
You sit at a table in the middle of the room surrounded by the councillors and key members of the staff and have seven minutes, without any interruption, to tell the councillors what your concerns or issues are.
At the seven minute mark you are stopped and hopefully one or more of the councillors will have prepared some intelligent questions to ask of you.
Members of the public can raise any Council related issues with Councillors, which have not been previously determined by Council.
That means you can't present on Council's decision to opt for a 25m pool at Batemans Bay but you could present on the fact that the community consultation that led to that decision and the underhanded process that cemented that decision was disgusting, despicable and a perfect example of the failures of the Eurobodalla Council to genuinely engage with their community.
Other examples of possible presentation items would be the concrete median strip on Beach Road as a traffic hazard, the apparent reduction in parks and reserve maintenance, the loathsome presentation of our public toilets, the removal of trees on Bingie Congo Road that was based on a whim and disregarded all prior community engagement.
Maybe you might like to talk about the Araluen Road bypass that is more of an off-road ordeal or the fact that the Cadgee community remain stranded without any prospect of Murphys Bridge being rebuilt in the near future.
The public access session commences at 9.15am unless there are no speakers registered.
To present at a public access session, you are required to register by 12pm on the business day prior and provide a written copy of the presentation.
One hour is allocated to the public access session. If there are more speakers registered than time permits, Council can resolve to extend the public access session for 15 minutes only. Any speakers who have not presented due to time constraints will be scheduled first on the list for the next available public access session.
Keep in mind that Councillor attendance to these sessions is not mandatory. Generally they are chaired by the Mayor. While they are meant to be formal proceedings conducted under Council's Code of Meeting Practice all too often Councillors fail to show respect to presenters by instead attending to their devices or even turning their back on presenters they might disagree with.
The Public Access sessions are NOT live-streamed because the Council determined that it was too dangerous to have people say what they wanted that might defame or upset. They were also cautious that a presenter could use the seven minutes to "platform" themselves, especially in the leadup to an election.
During the ZOOM period you could register as a member of the community wishing to VIEW ONLY and watch the antics of the Councillors. Now you need to attend the Moruya Chambers on the day and sit in the Public Gallery.
Register to speak by contacting Council’s Executive Services Office:
T: 02 4474 1358
E: council.meetings@esc.nsw.gov.au
Information for speakers
When you are speaking in the public access session, please:
turn off your mobile phone and pagers
remember that each speaker only has seven minutes
resist from making personal or derogatory comments
provide your presentation in writing, 12pm the business day prior
Councillors, staff and members of the public are bound by the Code of Meeting Practice and must show mutual respect for one another.
