Cr Lisa Intemann
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ONE of the main legal responsibilities for councillors is to attend and participate in formal council meetings.
Our council holds ordinary meetings monthly, on the third Wednesday, starting at 5.30pm.
The meetings usually last two to three hours, and usually consider about 30 to 40 items.
The relatively short time duration of the meetings belies the large amount of work which goes into preparation.
Every meeting has an agenda which covers the basic information behind each item and options for resolution.
But there are also extensive attachments containing more detailed information, but which can still be very important and can occasionally make or break a decision.
The agenda is usually about 200-300 pages, but the attachments can be much longer.
The attachments for last week's council meeting encompassed nearly 500 pages, but the May meeting was remarkable with over 1500 pages of attachments.
Most councillors access the reports electronically, thereby avoiding what could otherwise be a massive consumption of physical resources.
Staff begin compiling reports two weeks before a meeting, and councillors get access to them one week prior.
The reports are made available to the community in general on the Friday before the meeting.
Members of the community can address council for five minutes on any item at the meeting, but must lodge a request to speak by 4.30pm on the day prior.
For me, the highlight of last week's meeting was council's decision on how to allocate the extra $500,000 for footpath projects, which was a feature of this year's budget.
A list of 19 projects was agreed upon, covering locations across the entire Hastings and including four projects for Wauchope.
The list is ambitious, and we know in advance that not all the projects will likely be completed within the $500,000 budget.
Staff will work through the list, progressing down the priorities, and going as far as possible within budget.
This is not the only footpath work that council does.
The goal of the special extra allocation this year was to address important 'missing links', with the aim of improving connectivity, especially in areas of high pedestrian traffic.