COUNCILLORS have been moved to explain why a final extraordinary meeting of this current term has been cancelled.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council had scheduled the meeting for midday today to consider sending one item on the draft annual financial statements to audit.

However, Mayor Peta Pinson and councillors Adam Roberts, Danielle Maltman and Josh Slade advised they would not be attending, which meant a quorum could not be reached.

Council staff will now refer the statements to audit.

The meeting was to be held during business hours and while councillors were still in office, although in caretaker mode until the 14 September election.

In response to concerns about the cost, News Of The Area sought a figure from Council.

It was unable to provide one.

The cancellation resulted in five of the councillors seeking re-election releasing statements to explain their concerns and position.

These are reproduced below in the order they were received.

Joint statement: Crs Rachel Sheppard, Nik Lipovac, Lauren Edwards and Lisa Intemann.

We four write on behalf of ourselves as councillors, and not Council.

The September 6th Extraordinary Council Meeting was scheduled over a month ago, with the only item of business being to enable the elected body to complete its duty of considering and referring the financial statement to audit.

A quorum (five councillors) was confirmed weeks ago, with seven councillors accepting in person or [via] remote attendance.

The Mayor was an apology.

To our knowledge, no concerns were expressed in recent weeks regarding possible councillors’ non-attendance.

[On] 2 September, Council confirmed by email to all councillors that a council meeting may only be conducted remotely in the case of an emergency (clause 5.16 Code of Meeting Practice), which was not the case here.

As such, the extraordinary meeting was required to be held in person, but councillors retained the option to attend the meeting remotely.

At 10.30am [Monday], Council advised councillors that there was no quorum and the Extraordinary Meeting was cancelled.

We four non-aligned councillors, councillors Edwards, Intemann, Lipovac, and Sheppard, remain available to attend the meeting in person or remotely.

Only one other councillor was needed to make quorum. It is unclear why the three Team Pinson Councillors became unavailable without notice.

This unexplained absence of Team Pinson councillors prevents Council from full and proper consideration of the end of year financial statements.

We are concerned and disappointed that the elected Council has been obstructed from properly carrying out its financial responsibilities and oversight of Council.

Statement: Councillor Adam Roberts

Friday, 6 September was set to see a single-item Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Extraordinary Meeting in the Chambers in Burrawan Street.

It has come to light that there is inconsistency across councils in NSW in dealing with this issue of holding a special meeting for just one item.

Crs Pinson, Slade, Maltman and Roberts were hopeful that the meeting could be held online to avoid the unnecessary expenditure of a full in-chambers meeting for a single item, which was simply to refer a financial report to audit.

With some councillors wanting to instead hold the meeting in chambers at significant cost, a quorum could not be achieved, and the meeting will not proceed.

It is believed that some councils across the State, through their staff, are simply referring the financial report straight to the auditors without a council resolution, presumably to save ratepayers money or the opportunity to take a more common-sense approach to the issue.

It is believed that Port Macquarie-Hastings Council’s CEO will refer the financial report to audit now that no meeting will take place.

Holding a meeting of council during caretaker mode, just a day before voting opens, whilst councillors and candidates are at the back end of their campaigns, doesn’t make sense on a number of levels.

The financial report will go to audit with or without a council resolution.

With the cancellation of the meeting, we can now save on unnecessary costs and limit any potential grand-standing or unruly behaviour that may occur if a meeting was to go ahead.

By Sue STEPHENSON