Cr Olga Quilty notice of motion rejected by Wodonga Council chief executive Mark Dixon

The events of meetings held on June 28-29 were revisited this week when Cr Olga Quilty used the general business section of the latest meeting to inform the community a notice of motion she had submitted relating to the previous meeting had been rejected by chief executive Mark Dixon, but vowed to re-submit another one next month.

An attempt by Cr Quilty to raise the issue in general business to "avoid the issue becoming a bit stale" was shut down by Cr Poulton.

"Cr Quilty, I do admire your persistence in bringing that topic to light, but I understand it doesn't fit the category of general business," he said.

A Wodonga Council spokeswoman said a notice of motion needed to be submitted to the chief executive at least seven days before the council meeting and had to meet certain criteria to then be included in the agenda.

"The CEO routinely gains legal advice as part of his decision-making in this process," she said..

"If it does not meet the criteria, then the CEO can inform the author of his intention to reject the motion, provide advice on why it does not meet the requirements and give the author the opportunity to amend the notice of motion.

"This was the case with Cr Quilty's motion, hence it was not on the agenda for July."

Cr Ron Mildren raised the issue of the latest meeting agenda not mentioning Cr Quilty's failed notice of motion.

"It is probably an incorrect reflection of events," he said.

"The wording says council has not received any notices of motion for this meeting.

"A proper procedure and practice should have been noted that a notice of motion had been received and wasn't accepted for whatever the reason might have been."

Last month Cr Quilty sought to move a motion to suspend standing orders to debate whether Mr Dixon had the power to change the location of the meeting from public to virtual to allow Cr John Watson to attend.

Cr Watson had travelled to Sydney at beginning of the harbour city COVID outbreak.

Cr Poulton informed Cr Quilty she couldn't move a motion at that stage of the meeting, but she responded with a point of order, which was ignored, followed by a motion of dissent.

The latter was ignored on advice given to the mayor by governance officer Kevin Scully.

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The online meeting was also plagued by technical issues including Cr Libby Hall being unable to log in.

Councillors were advised the meeting was moving from a public to virtual event on the Saturday beforehand as a result of Cr Watson going to Sydney.

Agenda items including the adoption of the 2021-22 budget and confidential items such as Mr Dixon's annual performance review and Gateway Island land matters.

A long list of items have been split on 3-3 votes and required Cr Poulton's casting vote since Cr Kat Bennett has been on leave of absence.

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