Message from Mayor Stuart James 28 March

Published on 28 March 2020

These are unprecedented times calling for unprecedented decisions.

Last night Council held a Special Meeting of Council in anticipation of a possible state-wide lockdown occurring in the near future.
At the meeting, Council unanimously passed a set of principles to support our community, businesses and organisation during these challenging times.

These principles include changes to our hardship policy to allow all ratepayers (including homeowners, investment property owners, businesses and commercial operators) access to the hardship policy. We also reduced the interest rate to 0%

We are sending a letter to all ratepayers to advise of these changes and currently updating our forms and relevant information.

Our principles also includes the guarantee of ongoing employment to our permanent staff and includes casuals who have been employed by Monash for over six months and work regularly and systematically.

At the meeting, we determined to give full delegation of all Council powers to our CEO as a protective measure to ensure the business of Council could continue if Councillors were unable to attend a meeting and a quorum could not be formed (a quorum refers to the number of Councillors present at a meeting to ensure decisions can be made).

At the moment, under State Government law, Council meetings must be held in person, Councillors cannot do so remotely by video or online. We are advocating for the State Government to change this requirement, given the extraordinary times we are in.

These principles recognise that the Coronavirus /COVID-19 will impact every member of our community, every business, our staff and our operations.

They also recognise that given the rapidly changing issues resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic, as an organisation we need to respond quickly and comprehensively as we have done already. This ensures that if decisions need to be made that would have normally required Council to approve, the CEO now has the authority, and the full backing of Council, to do so.

Essentially, what these decisions mean is that we are here for you for the long haul. We have put in place measures to support you as a community, and our staff and organisation.

You can find more information here –

Principles-to-guide-Coronavirus-response-27-March-2020.pdf(PDF, 140KB)

Review of Delegations to the Chief Executive Officer(PDF, 552KB)

We will continue to support you through our critical services as we move through this crisis.

It is not business as usual, far from it, but we continue to be there for you. Together, we will get through this to the other side.