attachment - City of Norwood Payneham and St Peters

• encourage the use of the Council's Community Consultation Policy as an important tool for building strong
community relationships; and
• encourage partnerships with the community so that mutual strengths can be utilised to achieve common
goals.
3. RELATIONSHIPS WITH STAFF
As Elected Members, we:
• are committed to working cooperatively with staff to achieve the Council's goals;
• will develop mature and constructive working relationships based on mutual trust and respect;
• will be clear about and respect the distinction in roles of Elected Members and employees, as particularly
described in the Local Government Act 1999;
• will not publicly criticise employees in a way that casts doubt on their competence or integrity;
• will not use our position to improperly influence employees in a way that may result in an advantage to
ourselves or others;
• will not seek or receive information or advice from employees that is not available to all Elected Members;
• recognise that the power to direct an employee is the function of the Chief Executive Officer as prescribed
by the Local Government Act 1999;
• will observe any guidelines which the Chief Executive Officer may put in place regarding contact with
particular staff in relation to a specific issue;
• expect that employees will give objective and timely advice to the Council which assists in the
performance of our functions and duties.
4. USE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
From time to time Elected Members will be provided with information that may need to be considered or
handled in a confidential manner, both inside and outside of the Council.
(a) An Elected Member shall not use or disclose information that confers an unfair commercial or financial
benefit or detriment on a person or body.
(b) (i) In other cases, where the disclosure of confidential infonmation may result in damage to the
interests of the Council, an Elected Member shall not disclose such information unless the nature
of the matter is of significant overriding and critical importance to the interests of the community
as a whole.
(ii) In determining what is of significant overriding or critical importance to the interests of the
community as a whole to support the disclosure of information, an Elected Member must be able
to demonstrate that helshe took a reasonable approach, took into account all relevant issues and
weighed up all arguments for and against disclosure and applied the highest ethical standards in
arriving at the decision.
(* Members are advised that where a breach of confidence may result in legal action against the Member or
the Council in circumstances where legislation or a duty of confidence may apply which prevents disclosure,
they are to seek legal advice prior to any action under this section.)
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