WITH questions being asked on the cost of business rates, one Orange councillor sees another way of supporting the commercial sector.
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Councillor Joanne McRae will put a motion to Tuesday night's meeting, asking to review Orange City Council's procurement policy, which currently gives businesses from the area a 2 per cent discount when bidding for contracts.
She said other councils were as high as 15 per cent.
"I don't know what percentage we should have but I want the policy reviewed to see what we can do, I think we can do better than 2 per cent," she said.
"We know it has job impacts and we're getting income through businesses so we should be spending it back."
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Councillors attendance is also set to be placed under the microscope if Cr McRae has her way.
She will ask for a report on attendance at full meetings, as well as at community committees, briefing sessions and workshops.
Of the 26 council meetings in the past year, councillor Jeff Whitton has missed nine due to a combination of family illness and business, deputy mayor Sam Romano has missed seven, Jason Hamling has missed six, some due to medical leave, Glenn Taylor has missed five due to ill health and family commitments, while Scott Munro has also missed five due to work and family commitments.
Councillors McRae, Kevin Duffy and Russell Turner have missed two apiece, while Tony Mileto has missed one.
However, Cr McRae insisted the motion was not about absences, saying she had fielded questions from interested candidates on the responsibility and commitment involved Cr McRae noted in her motion members of the public had asked about the load placed on councillors and the report would make that clear.
"They really need to understand the workload of a councillor," she said.
She will also request a list of the training councillors had undertaken, whether relating to a conduct breach or otherwise, and declarations of interest completed by the due date.
She said with recent discussion in the chamber about conduct breaches and the cost of investigating them, publishing the training completed would assure the community councillors were "putting their words into action".
She said public interest declarations had become a concern due to undeclared conflicts in other council areas.
"It is appropriate to affirm whether this is an issue for any members of Orange City Council as a matter of public interest," she said.
She said much of the information was already included in the annual report.
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