Electors' Special Meetings Frequently Asked Questions

The community¹ or Council can make a request to the Mayor to hold an Electors’ Special Meeting.

Upon confirmation of the request by the Mayor, the CEO will convene an Electors’ Special Meeting by giving 14 days public notice of the date, time, place and purpose of the meeting.

The Electors’ Special Meeting will take place not more than 35 days after the request for the meeting was received by the Mayor

An Electors’ Special Meeting can be requested for any purpose, provided the issues to be considered are within the local government’s power to deal with.

A request for an Electors’ Special Meeting must specify the purpose for which the meeting is being called in a brief and clear manner.

Yes. To vote at an Electors’ Special Meeting, you must first register with the City to confirm that you are an elector of the District of Kalamunda.

To register, you will need photographic identification. The City checks this identification against the Electoral Role and the City’s rates database. If you are a ratepayer, you can vote at an Electors’ Special Meeting.

The City’s Notice calling for registrations will advise of the time and place for registrations before the Electors’ Special Meeting. Generally speaking registrations are undertaken on the day prior to the commencement of the
meeting.

The Presiding Member for an Electors’ Special Meeting is the Mayor, or if the Mayor is unavailable, the Deputy Mayor may be delegated this responsibility.

If the Deputy Mayor is also unavailable to preside, the Electors present at the meeting choose a Councillor to preside. If the Councillor nominated is unable or unwilling to preside, the Electors may choose someone else to preside.

If you are an elector and have registered to vote at the Electors’ Special Meeting you are attending, you can move what’s called a ‘motion’ at the meeting and you can vote on your or anyone else’s motion.

Moving a ‘motion’ means you are asking the Council to undertake some kind of action, for example, to adopt a report, to undertake works, to stop works and so on.

The Presiding member will call for a seconder. If you receive a ‘seconder’ for your motion, or in other words, the support of another person for your motion, the Presiding Member of the Electors’ Special Meeting will ask those in attendance if anyone would like to debate the motion and then, votes for or against on the motion will be taken

Voting at an Electors’ Special Meeting is by a simple show of hands. You will be asked to raise your hand if you are ‘for’ a motion being passed, or if you are ‘against’ a motion being passed.

When you registered to vote, you will have received an Electors wristband and a voting placard with the City’s logo on it. You must show both clearly when you raise your hand to vote.

City staff will count all votes (or raised hands) when the vote is called, so please ensure you keep your hand raised until your vote has been counted.

You do not have to vote on any motion if you do not wish to do so.

The Presiding Member is responsible for deciding how the meeting will be run, however, as a general guide, the Presiding Member will –

1. open the meeting and allow time for any final registrations to vote;
2. advise all in attendance of the purpose of the meeting;
3. ask if any person in attendance wishes to speak (called giving a Deputation);
4. after Deputations are completed, call for any motions from any Elector in attendance;
5. facilitate debate, if any, on any motion; and
6. seek a show of hands for those in favour or against any motion.

All decisions made at Electors’ Meetings are brought before the Council for consideration either at the next Ordinary Council Meeting, or if that’s not possible, the subsequent Council meeting. Otherwise, the Council can call a Special Council Meeting for this purpose.

For a decision made at an Electors’ Meeting to become a decision of the Council, the Council must adopt or agree to it.

If Council makes a decision in response to a decision made at an Electors’ Meeting, the reasons for the decision are recorded in the minutes of the Council meeting.