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After an initial call for a Christmas Eve meeting was cancelled, an Extraordinary meeting was then called for last Thursday 8th January, however no quorum was achieved with only Crs Moore, Turley, Graham and Cockram attending.
With the Mayor away Deputy Mayor Catherine Moore was Acting Mayor, the meeting was adjourned until 5.00pm on Thursday, 15 January in Bungendore.
The agenda for the meeting is to consider a motion to rescind the decision to have a referendum on wards, and was signed by Cr Graham, Cr Cockram, and Cr Crozier. A healthy public gallery from the western side of the shire had attended the meeting last week with an interest in this issue.
Council staff has sought legal advice on the issue of wards which had previously existed in the Tallaganda Shire, and further advice from the Department of Local Government advised that "It is of critical importance that the question or questions put to electors at a constitutional referendum are framed so as to ensure that a workable result is achieved. Questions must be clear, concise and be capable of being responded to with a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Council is responsible for the preparation and publicity of explanatory material that presents a balanced case both for and against the proposition put to its electors."
With the Palerang by-election to be held on Saturday, 14 March 2009, if Council decides to proceed with holding the referendum in conjunction with the by-election, the wording of the question/s is required to be submitted to the NSW Electoral Commission by 9 February at the latest to permit preparation and printing. Council will therefore need to determine such wording at its meeting to be held on 5 February.
Preparation by Council of the explanatory material would then need to follow as expeditiously as possible to enable wide community consultation and dissemination of the "Yes/No" case.
Tallaganda Shire had 3 wards with 3 Councillors in each at the time of amalgamation. In 1999, it had held a constitutional referendum on whether wards should be abolished. This referendum was successful so that the change could take place at the following Local Government election which at the time was scheduled for 2003.
However, the term of that Council was extended 12 months by the NSW State Government, so no election took place in 2003, and then Palerang was created by amalgamation in 2004.
Yarrowlumla had 3 wards with 3 Councillors in each at the time of amalgamation. It had not held any referendum to change this, so had the scheduled Local Government election taken place in 2003, those wards would have remained.
Palerang then surveyed the community in 2007 on a proposal for constitutional referenda including on wards issue for the 2012 Local Government election, but despite a small majority in favour of the referenda, Council resolved not to include the questions at the 2008 elections.
The second rescission motion was to rescind the decision to investigate other sites for the Bungendore waste transfer station, and if accepted, to then determine of the council's own Development Application for the transfer station located adjacent to the current Bungendore landfill.
The rescission motion was signed by Cr Cockram, Cr Turley & Cr Moore
Council had been acting on numerous past resolutions to buy land and develop a Resource Recovery Centre and Waste Transfer Station on Tarago Road, adjacent to the current tip, however in December a presentation to Council by Mr Des Page, consultant for Elmslea Developments, had suggested looking at other sites, such as adjacent to the Bungendore sewerage treatment plant. In a submission to Council Mr Page had acknowledged that land surrounding the existing landfill site was subject to an application for rezoning.
Mr Page also cited other issue such as the proximity (350m) to the current Elmslea, and the short lifespan of the proposed Waste Transfer Station.
Councillors had appeared to be eager to allow public consultation on the issue without being aware of the long history of the issue when they agreed to investigate alternate sites.
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