61Council meetings

61 Council meetings (1) A Council meeting is a meeting of the Council at which— (a) all the Councillors are, subject to this Act, entitled to attend and vote; and (b) no other person is entitled to vote; and (c) a decision to do an act, matter or thing is made by a resolution of the Council. (2) Except as provided in this Act and subject to the Governance Rules, the conduct of Council meetings is at the Council's discretion. (3) A Council meeting must be chaired by— (a) the Mayor; or (b) if the Mayor is not present at the Council meeting, the Deputy Mayor; or (c) if the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor are not present at the meeting, a Councillor who is present at the Council meeting and is appointed by a resolution of the Council to chair the meeting. (4) A quorum at a Council meeting is an absolute majority. (5) A question before a Council meeting is to be determined as follows— (a) each Councillor present at a Council meeting who is entitled to vote is entitled to one vote; (b) voting at a meeting must not be in secret, but if the meeting is closed to the public, a Councillor is not required to divulge their vote to the public; (c) the question is determined in the affirmative by a majority of the Councillors present at a meeting at the time the vote is taken voting in favour of the question; (d) subject to subsection (6), if the number of votes in favour of the question is half the number of Councillors present at the meeting at the time the vote is taken, the chairperson has a second vote; (e) for the purpose of determining the result of a vote, a Councillor present at the meeting who does not vote is to be taken to have voted against the question. (6) Subsection (5)(d) does not apply where the question is— (a) the election of a Mayor or a Deputy Mayor; or (b) a vote to declare the office of Mayor or Deputy Mayor vacant. S. 61(6A) inserted by No. 13/2022 s. 41. (6A) For the purposes of this section, a Councillor may attend and be present at a Council meeting by electronic means of communication. (7) In this section, ***absolute majority*** means the number of Councillors which is greater than half the total number of the Councillors of a Council.