The draft Governance Rules is an important document that sets the rules of conduct for all of council meetings and how council decisions are made.

The two key goals of our draft Governance Rules are to:

1. Ensure council decision making will be transparent; and
2. Council decisions and actions are taken in accordance with the relevant law.

Governance Rules must include:

• the conduct of council meetings;
• the conduct of meetings of delegated committees;
• the form and availability of meeting records;
• the election of the mayor and the deputy mayor;
• the appointment of an acting mayor;
• an election period policy; and
• the procedure for the disclosure of a conflict of interest by a councillor by a member of council staff

Our draft Governance Rules are divided into an introduction and seven (7) chapters, with each chapter containing its own rules.

Chapter 1 – Governance Framework

Chapter 2 – Meeting Procedure for Council Meetings

Chapter 3 – Meeting Procedure for Delegated Committees

Chapter 4 – Meeting Procedure for Community Asset Committees

Chapter 5 – Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Chapter 6 – Miscellaneous

Chapter 7 – Election Period Policy

Our draft Governance Rules enables us to fulfil our requirements under section 60 of the Local Government Act 2020, whilst addressing our Council Plan (2017-2021) key objectives - Participation and Performance.

Our draft Governence Rules have been informed by:

• Guidance materials from Local Government Victoria;
• Council Lawyers Governance Rules template; and
• Banyule’s Council Meeting Procedure Code (2015).

We are also in the process of engaging with:

• Internal council business units;
• All council staff;
• Key stakeholders;
• Community; and
• Councillors.

Our draft Governence Rules review is now closed for feedback.