We explain some of the highlights from the meeting below.

Adoption of Meeting and Common Seal Local Law, Governance Rules and Public Participation Policy

We need everyone who attends Council meetings to feel they’re safe, accessible, open and inclusive — for the community, Councillors and officers. Following community engagement earlier this year, our guiding governance documents were updated to meet current needs and build trust in Council’s decision-making processes.

Council endorsed three documents:

• Governance Rules, which are a set of rules that determine how the elected Councillors meet and make decisions. These Rules define how Councillors, community members and Council staff participate in official Council meetings to ensure a fair and productive process
• Conduct at Meetings and Common Seal Local Law, which is a local law that governs public conduct at Council meetings and the Common Seal, a device which is used for the execution of Council documents
• Public Participation Policy, which governs public participation at Council meetings and written public questions to Council.

These documents will help make meetings safer, more transparent and more effective in preparation for the 2024-2028 council term.   

State-led Activity Centre Program — Submission on Moorabbin and Chadstone Draft Plans

We endorsed our key concerns that will inform a submission to the Victorian Government on their state-led activity centre program in neighbouring areas like Moorabbin and Chadstone, calling for more transparency. While we know we need to address the current housing crisis, one of our big concerns we have is how quickly the Activity Centre Program is progressing.

There is not much time to consider the drafts or follow where they’re light on detail. For example, we have no information on the impacts that the expected growth will have on existing infrastructure or how the new infrastructure will be funded.

Community Grant Recommendations 2024–2025

Council awarded 82 community grants totalling $407,507. These grants support community groups, events and services that help our residents remain healthy and embrace diversity. Some of the projects that received funding include:

• Bentleigh Cricket Club’s All Abilities Program which aims to create a safe and welcoming opportunity for children with a disability to become involved in cricket
• Carnegie Community Choir which provides weekly choir rehearsals to local members to develop their singing and connect with likeminded people
• Victorian Dog Rescue & Resource Group’s Happy Dog, Happy Family program which delivers public education courses on dog ownership skills to local families who own a dog
• Tony's Cafe (Soup Kitchen) which provides food and meals to the local community through volunteers that support a range of marginalised or disadvantaged community members.

Fair Access Policy and Action Plan

Council adopted a Fair Access Policy and Action Plan to support equal and inclusive participation in community sport and recreation. The Policy works to eliminate gender inequality and create a fairer playing field while the Action Plan identifies specific actions to progress gender equity in community sport through policy, governance, and delivery of services.

It is important that Council and sporting clubs work together which is why we invited  26 sporting clubs to share their ideas on how to level the playing field. The feedback from the sporting clubs supported implementing fair access and they also raised interest in improving facilities and more women's teams.

For more information and all the reports from the meeting, visit our Council meeting page.