By Ethan Benedicto
As the City of Casey announced the return of in-person council meetings for 20 May, it also came with additional requirements and restrictions.
The upcoming meeting has been limited to a gallery of 80 people, with those looking to attend required to register prior with their first and last names, as well as their home address, to confirm their identity.
Anthony Tassone, vice president of the Casey Resident and Ratepayers Association, said that while “it’s good news that residents are being welcomed back to the public gallery… the announcement did come as a surprise”.
“Interestingly, there hasn’t been much notice given to residents of these new requirements, and the registrations close in less than a week.
“I think the City of Casey has room for improvement in how they engage the community on major announcements.
“Council hasn’t mentioned it anywhere besides the council website, they haven’t mentioned it on their social media channels or any other means that we’re aware of,” he said.
The most recent media release from Casey stated that from May onwards, pre-registration is required, and that registrations will open on Thursday prior to each meeting and close by 10am on Monday before the meeting.
For this upcoming one, registrations will open on Thursday, 15 May, and close on Monday, 19 May, at 10am.
Tassone said that the “understands the intent of asking for a home address”, considering that the council wants residents from Casey attending, “and not necessarily from outside the municipality”.
“The council would have obligations of keeping that information private, but the fact that there’s been less than a week’s notice given for these requirements, there’s the potential unintended outcome that people aren’t aware,” he said.
He also added that the possibility of residents looking to attend in “good faith” might not be able to, if they have not registered and are unaware of the capacity.
In addition, Tassone was hoping that residents would have some way to be informed that their registration has been confirmed, and that they are, once registered, open to attend the gallery.
He also questioned in the event that the 80 spaces were to be filled, if the council could “accommodate more spaces if there is high demand”.
“Because the council chambers can, and would be able to accommodate more than 80 people seated, and we also don’t know why 80 has been chosen as the number.
“It’s all a bit of a surprise, and the announcement came without much previous discussion or forewarning,” he said.
Tassone additionally critiqued the current governance rules that require a resident to be present for their public question to be addressed, saying that he and the CRRA “believe this shouldn’t be a requirement”.
“It’s not like the resident can follow up some sort of response, once it’s been given to the question, that’s it, there’s no two-way interaction.
“So what difference does it make if the resident is there or not? And if you’re going to cap the number of attendees, it could have the unintended consequence of someone who submitted a question not being able to attend,” he said.
Moving ahead, Tassone is looking to attend the upcoming meeting and remains adamant that more clarity and awareness around the requirements would have been the right card to play, asking, “how isCasey actually getting the message out there?”
