Reports about the Albany St cycleway and safety project, the council’s approach to governance arrangements for the term and councillor pay were not included in the meeting agenda when it was released, because they were not ready.
Anderson Lloyd partner Michael Garbett, a specialist in local government law, told the council the three late reports were a "technical breach" of standing orders, or meeting procedure, because there had not been two clear working days between their release and Tuesday’s council meeting.
However, he did not consider there was a material risk of invalidity or judicial review.
For two of the reports, the breach was by a few hours, and for the third — Albany St — the council could achieve compliance by coming back the next day to debate the issue, he said.
Councillors decided to carry on.
Council chief executive Sandy Graham had also said the Albany St report was prepared under urgency, after tenders came in above budget.
Cr Lee Vandervis argued discussion of the reports should be delayed to allow the public sufficient time to inspect the material.
He withdrew a motion to that effect, but both he and Cr Russell Lund voted against confirming the agenda.
Cr Lund challenged Mr Garbett directly, saying councillors had to comply with standing orders.
"Standing orders are there for a reason and yet you’re here now saying that staff can do whatever they like."
Mr Garbett said his advice was unchanged.
The council plans to have its meetings on Thursdays this term, giving councillors and the public two extra days to read meeting agendas.
Ms Graham said some delays would be unavoidable, but staff would do their best to meet the new timeframe of one week’s gap between publication of agendas and the meetings.
"This sort of transition does take time as we shift to new ways of working and align various other work streams within council to suit the new structure," she said.
"At present, the law requires councils to make agendas and reports public no less than two working days ahead of meetings, but we want to do better than that."
