Reviews of the Dunedin City Council’s code of conduct and meeting procedures could crank into gear before Christmas.
The council’s standing orders document covers requirements for the running of meetings and rules of debate and the code of conduct deals more comprehensively with expected behaviour of elected representatives.
The code and standing orders were both adopted in 2016 and reviews have been signalled for some time.
Each was referred to in the civic affairs committee agenda for last week’s meeting, which said "a date for the council workshop is to be confirmed, likely to be later in 2024".
Cr Christine Garey wanted more specificity.
"I think there’s a level of frustration around the delay in reviewing both of these", she said.
"They’ve been on our radar for several years now."
Council corporate services general manager Rob West said staff were doing their best to try to fit this into "a very busy schedule between now and Christmas".
Cr Garey said it was a high priority for elected members.
Cr Jim O’Malley suggested staff might not need to have heavy involvement in revising standing orders and councillors could lead the process.
"It’s effectively our document", he said.
"It’s how we treat each other or how we act in the room."
Cr Lee Vandervis said there could be far-reaching legal consequences from changing standing orders and councillors making suggestions on the fly might take them down an unwise path.
Standing orders should be updated, but considerable legal input was needed, he said.
