Council Meetings

Agenda Briefings

Agenda Briefing Sessions are held once a month, 1pm on the third Tuesday, one week before the Ordinary Council Meeting.

Agenda Briefing are informal and not a decision making meeting, but an opportunity for the Councillors to gather further information by asking questions and discussing the agenda items. The public are invited to attend these sessions and encouraged to attend if they have an item of interest to themselves or a group they represent. Agenda Briefings give the public a chance to discuss items with Councillors and ask or answer questions.

Ordinary Council Meeting

Council meet once a month, at 4pm on the fourth Tuesday for the Ordinary Council Meeting (OCM). Agendas and Minutes for these meeting can be found here.

Ordinary Council Meetings are also Live Streamed. You can watch these meetings here.

All Council Meetings are open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend. It is important to remember that Council Meetings are governed by the Local Government Act 1995 and the Shire of Esperance Standing Orders Local Law 2015. These documents govern how a meeting is conducted and outline how Councillors, staff and members of the public should conduct themselves during the meeting.

Public Question Time

All members of the community have a legislative right to ask questions at council meetings. The Council encourages public participation in the decision-making process.

A verbal response will be provided at the meeting or if the Council chooses to take the question on notice, a written response will be provided at a later date.

A summary of each question raised by members of the public at the meeting and a summary of the response to the question will be included in the minutes of that meeting in accordance with section 5.25 (1) (f) of the Local Government Act 1995 and the Local Government (Administration) Regulations 1996 regulation 11 (e).

Participating in Public Question Time

In accordance with the Shire’s Standing Orders Local Law 2015, a member of the public who wishes to ask a question during public question time must:

• First state his or her name and address;
• Direct the question to the presiding member;
• Ask the question briefly and concisely;
• Limit any preamble to matters directly relevant to the question; and
• Take direction from the person presiding whenever called upon to do so.

Conduct of Persons attending a Council Meeting

During a Council meeting Councillors, staff and members of the public must follow the Standing Orders Local Law 2015 and need to behave in a certain way, including:

• Official Titles to be Used
• When addressing Councillors or Shire employees official titles should be used.
• Recording of Proceedings
• No person is to use any electronic, visual or vocal recording device or instrument to record the proceedings of the Council or a committee without the written permission of the Council.
• Prevention of Disturbance
• Any member of the public addressing the Council or a committee is to extend due courtesy and respect to the Council or committee and the processes under which they operate and must take direction from the person presiding whenever called upon to do so.
• No person observing a meeting is to create a disturbance at a meeting, by interrupting or interfering with the proceedings, whether by expressing approval or dissent, by conversing or by any other means.

Preserving Order

It is the duty of the person presiding to preserve order, and they may call any person in attendance to order, whenever, in his or her opinion, there is cause for so doing. Please take any direction from the presiding member and act reasonably.