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Council adopts values and behaviours charter

Latrobe City Council formally adopted the ‘Councillor Values and Behaviours Charter’ at its meeting earlier this week.

By Latrobe City Council - 8th September 2006 - Back to News

The ‘Councillor Values and Behaviours Charter’ identifies a range of agreed core values incorporating respect, equality, integrity, accountability and leadership; that will determine the way councillors will work through council issues and reach decisions.

Latrobe City’s chief executive officer, Paul Buckley, said that each of the councillors and members of the executive team signed onto the values and behaviours charter at the council meeting.

"The charter reflects important core values that will be reflected by councillors in their dealings with each other and the organisation that puts into practice the decisions of the elected council. However, these are core values that will be reflected throughout our organisation, and as such, Latrobe City’s executive team has also signed the document," Mr Buckley explained.

"The charter also identifies some of the behaviours that put into practice will result in the core values being reflected through the councillor’s and organisation’s day to day work. For example, in displaying equality, signatories commit to being inclusive; respecting diversity; treating everyone fairly; and not discriminating to the detriment of an individual or community.

"The signing of the charter is an important event and an historical occasion in the life of Latrobe City. All councillors and the executive team have been actively involved in the development of these core values and behaviours, and have agreed upon, and signed the charter. The charter recognises that the councillors and executive team are individually and collectively held accountable for upholding the core values.

Mr Buckley said that following the election of a new council for Latrobe City last November, an innovative councillor development program was put into place to help the group focus on leadership, governance issues and agreed values and behaviours. "External facilitators were used to develop this program and facilitate the workshops conducted with councillors," he explained.

"The councillors undertook workshops as a group to discuss such things as leadership and requirements under the Local Government Act including conflicts of interest and confidentiality, together with workshops on formulating their own values as a group and how they intend to interact with each other and those within the senior management team of the organisation.

"These workshops on values led them to agree as a group to develop and adopt their own values in open council as well as to review their code of conduct to incorporate these agreed values and behaviours.

"Additionally, Latrobe City Council was successful in being the venue for a Municipal Association of Victoria series called ‘Councillor Fundamentals’. This was a series of six full-day councillor workshops covering topics such as planning, media relations, finance, and their obligations under the Local Government Act and other laws, which our councillors attended, augmenting their knowledge base," Mr Buckley added.

Latrobe City mayor, Cr Lisa Price, said the councillor development program has enhanced the councillors’ capacity to be properly informed, and to ensure that they not only have a clear understanding of their role as civic leaders, but also have the skills and knowledge that empower them to contribute their best in matters affecting the wider community they were elected to represent.

"This council takes councillor, organisational and community obligations seriously, and I think this is amply demonstrated by our willingness to develop and sign this charter. We are all human beings, and as such one-hundred percent perfection is unlikely to be achieved, but initiatives such as the Councillor Values and Behaviours Charter go a long way towards striving for and achieving betterment, and implementing responsible governance," Cr Price said.


Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com



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