Ordinary Meeting of Council to be pretty danged ordinary

The Ordinary Meeting of Council to be held in the Council Chambers, Moruya on Tuesday 11 May 2021 commencing at 11.00am looks to be one of the fastest on record with just the following items listed on the agenda.

At $20,000 per year and around 18 meetings per year one might expect a little more performance from our councillors than their typically half hour meetings. Once again this week has no Questions on Notice or Notices of Motion put forward by the councillors so the only excitement we get to see is in what the staff put forward for the councillors to rubber stamp. The Batemans Bay Surf Life Saving Club Inc. has requested a $30,000 interest free loan to assist with redevelopment and expansion of their clubhouse facility. The primary aim of the building works is to upgrade the present facilities so that it is able to meet the needs of an expanding Club and community. Council staff have recommended that the Batemans Bay Surf Life Saving Club Incorporated be offered an interest free loan of $30,000 for a term of three years and nine months, being fifteen equal and consecutive quarterly payments of $2,000 each. Council has a revolving fund of money available for the purpose of providing interest free loans to community sporting and cultural organisations. Council’s policy “Interest Free Advances to Sporting and Cultural Organisations” sets out eligibility criteria and conditions. A $60,000 limit per community body is stipulated within the policy. The applicant meets the eligibility criteria set out in Council’s policy and the requested amount is within the policy limits. Council granted Batemans Bay Surf Lifesaving Club an interest free loan in 2014. The full amount was paid off within the agreed timeframe. In all the agenda items offer no encouragement for much discussion so you should expect the meeting to last half an hour if you want to watch it live on Council's website. There is one hope of the possibility of Urgent Business being raised. Generally any such item is disallowed as not warranting discussion in the Council Chambers when it could be best dealt with behind closed doors in a briefing, away from the public. If the good people of Araluen Road might hope for a mention on the state of their road and the immediacy for action they will disappointingly find that the Council's Code of Meeting Practice brings any hope to a halt saying "Urgent business regarding operational issues will not be accepted, as there are alternative channels available to deal with these issues outside of meetings." The record for a Council meeting is fifteen minutes. Let's see if that can be broken. It only requires Clr Rob Pollock to be in the chair and Clr Lindsay Brown to decline from his waffling.