As the upcoming City of Casey May council meeting is set to be held in person, confirmation comes as council officers point to safety and space as the forefront of the new requirements.
Casey’s manager of communications and corporate governance, Chloe Casey, said that the 80-person limit is “based on safety and space considerations”.
“The layout of the room limits the gallery area, which is seated only.
“The capacity limit also ensures compliance with Occupational Risk and Safety (OHS) and Emergency Management requirements for safe access and exit points,” she said.
During the last in-person meeting in February, there was an uneven split of attendees who were seated and those who were standing, many of the latter positioning themselves, due to limited space, in front of the doors and congesting in the back areas.
Casey said that the past attendance numbers were reviewed in order to set a safe and practical limit.
Anthony Tassone, vice-president of the CRRA, touched on the governance rules around public questions only being answered if the resident is present, and if it would continue to be the case if said resident were not able to attend the in-person meetings due to space limitations.
Casey said that the council is aware that the Governance Rules “include that a person must be in-person to have their question read out”.
“We are monitoring the number of public questions that are received and the number of people that register to attend the council meeting in person.
“Once both of these close on Monday, 19 May, we will decide if we need to amend the process for reading out public questions as we have at both the March and April meetings,” she said.
She also added that any person who submits a public question will receive a copy of the responses directly.
All responses are also included in the council meeting minutes on the website.
Registrations for the council meeting are open today, on Thursday, 15 May, and will close by 10am, on Monday, 19 May.
