Regulation amendments for electronic attendance – enabling council meetings to continue during emergencies
His Excellency the Governor, in Executive Council, has approved regulations to allow local government councils to hold meetings electronically during a public health emergency or a state of emergency. This can be via teleconference, video conference or other electronic means.
These will be gazetted tomorrow (25 March 2020) and will take effect the following day.
The regulations also provide that individual councillors can participate electronically in face to face meetings should they go ahead.
This will ensure that local governments can continue to hold meetings and make decisions in the best interests of the community. This includes committee meetings, should councils continue to hold them.
The amendments also modify the provisions in the Local Government Act that relate to notice of a meeting and public question time to enable meetings to be held electronically.
If a meeting is held electronically, public question time requirements will be met if council allocates time for raising questions by members of the public and provides a means for questions to be submitted prior to the meeting.
WALGA is continuing to provide guidance to the sector. Information can be found on their website.
If you have any questions, please contact the department at LGresponse@dlgsc.wa.gov.au. This is a new email address which has been established to assist local governments during this time.
Yours sincerely
Duncan Ord OAM