Cr Peter Hulin is preparing to fire the first salvo in the continuing council division with a notice of motion calling for a vote of no confidence in the council’s chief executive Bruce Anson. 

The motion Cr Hulin will put to his fellow councillors tonight asks that “at our earliest convenience (we) ask the new Labor minister for local government to appoint a monitor to oversee the running of the Warrnambool City Council until Mr Bruce Anson’s contract expires”.

Meanwhile, Cr Peter Sycopoulis will re-ignite the debate surrounding the recording of council meetings.

Cr Sycopoulis has foreshadowed a motion calling for “an estimated amount of $18,000 (to be included) in the 2015-16 budget estimates for the implementation of audio and video recording of all ordinary meetings of council with view on demand from a public website to begin as soon as practicable after July 1, 2015”. 

The recording of meetings has been a repeated source of division for Warrnambool councillors, despite Moyne Shire adopting the practice since October 2011.

The recording and streaming of council meetings has become increasingly popular at municipalities around the state.

Cr Sycopoulis’ motion appears to call for just recording and not live-streaming, which has been a sticking point for some councillors, and only refers to ordinary meetings. 

A past unsuccessful motion launched by Cr Hulin in February last year also called for confidential meetings to be recorded and kept secure for at least a decade.

Cr Brian Kelson has also added a notice of motion to the agenda dealing with the ongoing Warrnambool saleyard issue.

Cr Kelson’s motion asks for councillors to thank Regional Infrastructure Pty Ltd (RIPL) “for its current expression of interest in relation to the future of the Warrnambool Livestock Exchange, and that RIPL be formally advised that the Warrnambool City Council has no objection to RIPL determining to proceed on its own account to develop its own new regional livestock exchange on a site in south western Victoria”.

It also asks that “RIPL be formally advised that it is the intention of the Warrnambool City Council to continue to manage and operate the Warrnambool Livestock Exchange in the foreseeable future”.