Council decision making

Council decisions are called resolutions and are made through a formal process by which matters requiring determination are compiled into reports prepared by the management team. These reports provide the necessary background to help the Councillors understand:

• the issues involved
• any legal or policy implications
• alternative ways of dealing with the matter and assess the best option for the community.

Policies are decisions of the Council which are used to guide future decision making to achieve consistency and fairness in dealing with similar situations. For a list of our current Policies, please see Policies.

Local Laws are decisions of the Council about how to regulate certain matters. These decisions are typically for the safety, health and wellbeing of residents. For information about Local Laws and other regulatory matters, please see Business and regulation.

We makes collective decisions through a two stage process:

• Standing committees, these are meetings Chaired by a nominated Councillor. Councillors consider issues in detail and make recommendations to the full Council meeting.
• Full Council meetings, these are meetings chaired by the Mayor. The Mayor and Councillors consider the recommendations of the Standing Committees and make the final decision about what action will be resolved.

Decisions made at full council meetings are documented and published on our website as meeting minutes. To see committee meeting minutes, please see Committies and Meetings.

The outcomes of those resolutions then become the responsibility of the CEO to delegate to appropriate staff for implementation.

Council Meetings

The way meetings are conducted is governed by legislation. General provisions about the structure and form of meetings are contained in the Local Government Regulation 2012 and the Department of State Development, Local Government, Racing and Planning special Model Meeting Procedures.

For ease of reference, Logan are consolidating the laws and guidelines about meetings into one Code of Meeting Practice.

Councillors need to be aware of the meeting conduct and the requirements about declaring conflicts of interest. Failure to declare conflicts of interests and possible conflicts of interests is a serious matter and can result in automatic disqualification as a councillor and in serious cases possible criminal charges.

Council officers assisting at meetings can help Councillors identify situations that might give rise to a risk of conflict of interest and advise of the best way to handle declarations.

It is not unlawful to have a conflict of interest. What is unlawful is not to declare or otherwise deal with the conflict correctly, for example, leaving the meeting in which the matter the subject of the conflict is being discussed and not taking part in any related debate or decision making.