City of Perth councillors have once again clashed with their own administration, ignoring advice that officers believe may represent 'poor governance'. The Policy, Legislation and Governance committee has recommended curbing the powers of the chief executive officer while extending councillor control over travel, event tickets and policy decisions.
Committee Recommendations
During the committee's inaugural meeting in late April, councillors rejected or amended recommendations from city officers. Instead, they backed a list of governance changes that increase elected member oversight and maintain councillor entitlements. Committee members include Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds, deputy Lord Mayor David Goncalves and councillors Lisa Ma, Liam Gobbert and Viktor Ko.
The committee's recommendation will now go through the council, which is expected to make a decision at this month's council meeting on May 26. At the city's agenda briefing on Tuesday night, Mr Reynolds said that given the recent 'media attention' and some 'misinformation going around', any questions relating to the item are to be sent to administration to 'deal with'. Cr Raj Doshi attempted to ask a question but Mr Reynolds told her to put them in writing.
Administration Warnings
In the council meeting agenda notes, administration warned that the committee's recommendations to the council were mostly unsupported by officers. 'The recommendations of the committee are not supported by administration as they are either invalid, exceed council's legal authority, represent poor governance, inappropriately enable personal benefits to accrue to elected members, and/or introduce unnecessary risk,' the administration said in the council agenda briefing notes.
Officers also warned that several proposals relating to travel reimbursements, accommodation and staff support for private travel arrangements could have 'an unquantified financial impact' on ratepayers. Administration had suggested tightening international accommodation allowances, allowing one night accommodation before an event rather than two. But councillors voted to allow two nights accommodation before overseas events and allow the city to coordinate combined private and official itineraries, provided no extra public cost was incurred.
Changes to CEO Powers
The committee has also suggested banning councillors from collecting personal loyalty rewards for travel, such as frequent flyer points. Additionally, the committee has suggested adjusting powers relating to the CEO. They want to restrict the ability of the CEO to take policy and local law matters directly to the council, meaning governance matters must first go through the committee unless there is an urgent deadline or legal obligation.
Furthermore, the committee voted to shift some powers from the CEO to the Lord Mayor, including the authority to nominate replacement voting delegates for WALGA meetings. The committee also wants event tickets that come to administration to be offered to elected members first.
Travel Suspension Motion
At the city's April meeting, Cr Catherine Lezer put forward a notice of motion calling on the council to consider suspending all travel while the Fuel, Energy and Power Resources Order remains in effect. Under her motion, travel would be allowed in 'exceptional circumstances', under the discretion of the CEO and Lord Mayor. However, Mr Goncalves moved to defer the decision until the committee meeting, which was passed 5-4.
