MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire will cut its public meetings from 13 to nine for the remainder of the year after citing an “intense schedule” including working with three different CEOs and producing its biggest budget ever.
The decision was adopted unanimously by councillors at their 17 June meeting which will see their future ordinary meetings held every three weeks rather than fortnightly. However it maintained it “will continue to provide opportunities for council to meet its legislative responsibilities and maintain public transparency”. An additional meeting will be held on 16 December for councillors to address any urgent items before Christmas.
Deputy mayor Cr Paul Pingiaro said as a newly elected council, it “has delivered an extraordinary amount of work” and now was the time to focus on strategic planning and community outcomes. “We have debated and resolved some complex issues and restructured some key policies and adopted a balanced and forward-looking budget… all of this has taken place during a period of significant transition, including working with three different CEOs in just seven months. That level of leadership change adds to complexity,” he said.
“I think it’s now time with the body of work that we have put in, that we just slow down a bit and allow everything to catch up and allow the organisation to really find its feet and find some stability in everything as we go through all this. That intensity of work has put a tremendous amount of pressure on everyone, councillors included – and if we want lasting, well-considered outcomes, we also need to give everyone a bit of a breather to respond.”
The shire has so far held a total of 11 meetings, comprising ten ordinary council meetings and one unscheduled meeting. “Of these, only one meeting did not complete all scheduled business, with a small number of reports deferred to the next meeting. This was primarily due to the cancellation of an earlier meeting as a result of councillor illness,” a council report said, noting on average that meetings were held within 2.5 hours maximum – less than the four-hour allowance. Cr Patrick Binyon suggested that given meetings were finishing earlier, it could allow more time for public questions to be read out.
Mayor Cr Anthony Marsh welcomed the change following a “pretty intense schedule” but noted the reduction of meetings “doesn’t mean we do 33 per cent less work”. “We just can spend a bit more time to get across the detail [in meeting agendas], not to say we’re not across it now, but it gives everyone a bit more time to take considered thoughts when they come to the chamber,” he said, adding “we can call unscheduled meetings to deal with anything that we need to that may arise out of schedule”.
Marsh said the shire had got through a “significant volume of work” in six months, and if the change didn’t work for any reason “we can do it differently moving forward”. “Hopefully we won’t be missing out on getting through any council business as a result. We should still be able to deal with that fine.”
The new schedule is already effective with the next meeting to be held on 22 July. The proposed timetable also includes three community council meetings including at the Tyabb Community Hall (12 August), Flinders Civic Hall (14 October), and the Blairgowrie Community Hall (2 December) which all start at 6.30pm. Due to Melbourne Cup public holiday, the council meeting will be held on 5 November.
First published in the Mornington News – 22 July 2025
