MOUNT Gambier City councillors will return to in-person chamber meetings for the first time since the COVID-19 restrictions forced them to be conducted electronically.
A resolution was endorsed to change policy at last night’s full council meeting, enabling the resumption of face-to-face meetings of council, committees and informal gatherings.
It follows council adopting changes in April 2020 to allow electronic participation in council meetings in response to the COVID-19 health emergency.
Council explored the option of conducting hybrid meetings, which would allow members to attend either electronically or face-to-face, however it was not considered feasible.
“Taking into account the compliance requirements, it is the chief executive officer’s recommendation that council only move forward with face-to-face meetings on an ‘all-in’ or ‘all-out’ basis,” council executive administration manager Michael McCarthy said in the report.
“The council has no technical solution to accommodate mixed attendance.”
The recommendation caused a division among elected members, with some questioning why electronic attendance could not be accommodated given the current landscape.
“I simply do not accept in this day and age that we cannot have electronic attendance by an individual at a meeting,” Cr Steven Perryman said.
“It’s how the whole world has gone, hundreds of thousands of students attended five to six weeks of school classes electronically, so to suggest that we cannot have a conference phone for one or two members to a workshop, I just do not accept that.”
Cr Christian Greco described the recommendation as bizarre.
“The attendance of elected members has gone through the roof, I think most of us would be 100pc and it just shows that we all do lead busy lives,” he said.
“This has enabled us all to have some input into every single thing, be abreast of everything and be able to make better decisions as a council.”
Cr Kate Amoroso put forward an alternative formal motion for council to continue to conduct gatherings via electronic means for another month.
“I think council should defer this matter to next month’s council meeting so we can hash it out a little further,” she said.
However, the formal motion led to a tied vote with Crs Max Bruins, Ben Hood, Frank Morello, Sonya Mezinec voting against Cr Amoroso’s proposal.
Mayor Lynette Martin cast the deciding vote against.
The same four elected members and Ms Martin voted through the original motion, endorsing a return to face-to-face meetings.
Cr Paul Jenner experienced technical difficulties during debate leading to a short delay, which was highlighted by Cr Bruins.
“Pretty good example of why we need to go back to face-to-face,” Cr Bruins said.
Under the current COVID-19 restrictions, the council chamber will be able to accommodate all elected members and a selection of staff in addition to three people in the public gallery and one in the media section.
