At the last Council meeting the Mayor presented two Mayoral Minutes. No doubt penned by staff these were delivered with little notice to the councillors and with NO notice given in the agenda to the general public as might be inclusive practice and certainly used by the Mayor in regards to banning helium balloons that she did in Feb 2017. 2.7 Mayoral Minutes 2.7.1 What is a mayoral minute? The mayor may put to a meeting (without notice) any matter which the council is allowed to deal with or which the council officially knows about (cl.243(1) of the Regulation). This would cover any council function under the Act or other legislation, or any matter that has been brought to the council’s attention, for example, by letter to the mayor or the general manager. This power to make mayoral minutes recognises the special role of the mayor. A mayoral minute overrides all business on the agenda for the meeting, and the mayor may move that the minute be adopted without the motion being seconded. Mayoral minutes should not be used to introduce, without notice, matters that are routine, not urgent, or need research or a lot of consideration by the councillors before coming to a decision. These types of matters would be better placed on the agenda, with the usual period of notice being given to the councillors. (Source) 17/211 MOTION Councillor Innes - PARKING IN BATEMANS BAY THAT options for additional parking in Clyde Street precinct, Batemans Bay be prepared and a report brought back for Council's consideration in October 2017. The Mayor informed the chamber that parking on Orient Street had increased from 53 to 59. The Mayor makes the statement that her Mayoral Minite is "pretty self explanetary in the summary" however that summary wasn't available to anyone in the gallery and by Councillor Brown's own admission he had only received the Mayoral minute that morning. The Mayor indicated that there has been concern regarding parking in the Clyde street precinct saying historically that there is still some concern that there has been a loss of parking in the business area and businesses have called for additional parking in the Clyde street precinct to be investigated. Councillor Counstable asked the Mayor specifically about bus egress turning right from North Street into Orient Street and has that been addressed to which the Mayor responded "I believe that that matter is at hand…We will keep a close eye on what transpires in that space". Brown asked "will the options be with the existing design of the streetscape Mayor: Of Course Brown… so we’re not ripping stuff up.... There have been two major issues discussed by businesses in regards to the streetscaping works in Orient Street. The first involves the decision to relocate the Loading Zone away and extend the Bus Zone towards the throat of Orient Street that now has a new Adam's Apple for pedestrians to cross at. Unfortunately that "throat" of an access is TOO narrow to allow a bus to pass another without needing to mount the pedestrian area and lookout of you are standing too close because you might also get knocked out by a bus wing mirror.
Above : the new epiglottis pedestrian nib that is now at the throat of Orient Street adjacent to the bus stand is presenting difficulties for bus drivers and introducing a risk to pedestrians
The new loading zone has been moved from in front to Office Works (now the extended bus parking area at The Throat) to the area in front of Innes Boatshed and locals businesses are scratching their heads at the loss of the all day zone because most of their deliveries ARE NOT between Midnight and 9am.
Meanwhile at the other end of the street the Beagle carried out a survey of 19 drivers who had parked just parked or were just leaving and asked them if they knew how to park in a 135 degree parking zone. None of them did however they tried to work it out and then became confused about whether it would be nose in or reverse parking. Each were than shown the new parking signs that advise 135 degree parking Rear to Kerb.
Above: How would you park if there wasn't line marking
MR17/005 MOTION Councillor Innes DOG RECREATION FACILITIES THAT: 1.Council remove the dog prohibition on Corrigans Reserve, enabling dogs on-leash. 2.Publicly exhibit for twenty eight (28) days a draft amendment to the Companion Animal Management Plan 2015-2019 to remove the prohibition of dogs on Corrigans Reserve, enabling dogs on-leash. 3.A further report be provided to Council containing a revised Companion Animal Management Plan 2015-19, inclusive of the submissions received during the exhibition period. 4.Include an Action in the Operational Plan to commence the review Council’s Companion Animal Action Plan (CAMP) in 2017-18. It must have been discovered that dogs on-leash were not allowed on Corrigans Reserve... surely a correction of that status would be routine as would the exhibition of 28 days. Certainly this element alone is not an URGENT matter. Nor would be the request for a report being provided to Council containing a revised plan. It is curious that the report also be inclusive of submissions that were received as if heralding incorporating one of the submissions to the Plan. Obviously there is something in there that has caused this to be urgent and as it was to be Included as an Action in the Operational Plan in a later agenda item to be voted on it might well stand as urgent...
