After visiting Wauchope for the March council meeting, councillors will once again meet at the Port Macquarie Council Chambers for their monthly meeting.

All members of the community are welcome to attend, or watch the livestream on the council's YouTube channel which are published after streaming.

The meeting will start at 10am on April 18.

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here.

Referendum to reduce councillor numbers from nine to seven

In the first council meeting for 2024, councillors debated reducing councillor numbers from nine to seven following the 2028 Local Government Election.

Councillors moved a motion in February to approve the wording for the constitutional referendum to consider the reduction in councillor numbers to be, "Do you favour a reduction in the number of Port Macquarie-Hastings councillors from nine to seven, comprising of the mayor and six councillors?"

Following a lost amendment by Councillor Rachel Sheppard, which would have seen a clause added to the recommendation to include an information page on council's website with reasons for and against a reduction in councillor numbers, a further motion will be put to councillors at April's meeting.

The recommendation that will be put to councillors is as follows:

That Council, regarding the constitutional referendum to be conducted at the 2024 Local Government elections on a reduction of Councillor numbers from nine to seven:

1. Develop and provide an information page on Council's website from 1 August 2024 that includes supporting information for both the 'yes' response and 'no' response to the referendum question, consisting of opinions provided by Councillors supporting each option.

2. Determine that this information page will make it clear that the opinions have been provided by individual Councillors, and do not reflect the position of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.

3. Note the example information supporting the 'no' response to the referendum question, as provided as supplementary information with this Notice of Motion.

4. Receive a report to the June 2024 Ordinary Meeting of Council, which includes the opinions provided by Councillors for the 'yes' response and 'no' response for display on the information page.

Councillors Lauren Edwards, Lisa Intemann, Nik Lipovac and Rachel Sheppard will move the motion.

Use of the casting vote

At the March ordinary council meeting, councillors moved a motion to request the CEO to provide a report to the April 2024 ordinary council meeting detailing the purpose and use of a casting vote as included in the Local Government Act and the Office of Local Government Model Code of Meeting Practice.

The motion that will be put to councillors at the April meeting includes council noting the information provided in the report, which details the purpose and use of a casting vote, the mayor's role in using the vote and what happens when a casting vote is not used.

Draft Local Government elections caretaker period policy

A recommendation will be put to councillors to adopt the draft Local Government Elections Caretaker Period Policy.

Council will be conducting Local Government elections on September 14, 2024 after a shortened council term due to a delay in conducting the previous election.

Leading up to these elections, council enters a four week caretaker period whereby a number of restrictions are placed upon council with regard to its decision making capabilities.

Water quality update - taste and odour

A recommendation will be put to councillors to note the information contained in a report regarding water quality in the Port Macquarie-Hastings.

At the ordinary council meeting in February, a report was presented to council on the Annual Drinking Water and Recycled Water Report 2022-2023.

As part of this report, reference was made to the community concerns regarding water quality within the Port Macquarie-Camden Haven water supply system that were experienced during January 2024.

At that meeting, council resolved to request that a report be brought back to the April 2024 ordinary council meeting to provide more detail on the taste and odour issues that were being experienced in the water supply.