A public transparency policy adopted under the Act must:

• give effect to the public transparency principles
• describe the ways in which Council information is to be made publicly available
• specify which Council information must be publicly available, including all policies, plans and reports required under this Act or any other Act.

The draft Public Transparency Policy has been developed to formalise Council’s support for transparency in its decision-making processes and the public awareness of the availability of Council information.

The draft policy covers documentary information, process information and how information will be made available to the public and once adopted will become an integral part of Council’s Good Governance.

The requirement to adopt a set of Governance Rules replaces the Meeting Procedure Local Law required under the Local Government Act 1989 and must be made with respect to the conduct of Council meetings and meetings of delegated committees.

The Governance Rules must provide for Council to:

• consider and make decisions on any matter being considered by the Council fairly and on the merits
• institute decision making processes to ensure that any person whose rights will be directly affected by a decision of the Council is entitled to communicate their views and have their interests considered.

Council’s current Election Period Policy was extensively reviewed and adopted by Council in September 2019. The new draft Policy has been updated to incorporate the changes in legislation provided by the introduction of the Local Government Act 2020.

The 2020 local government Election Period is from 12 midday on Tuesday 22 September 2020 to 6 pm Saturday 24 October 2020.

The Act prohibits specific decisions of Council during the election period:

appointment or remuneration of the CEO but not an Acting CEO

• expenditure exceeding one per cent of the income from general rates, municipal charges and service rates and charges
• Council considers could be reasonably deferred until the next Council is in place
• Council considers should not be made during an election period
• Any decision that would enable the use of Council's resources in a way that is intended to influence, or is likely to influence, voting at the election.