NEW governance rules had been in place minutes before Loddon Shire councillors slipped up at Tuesday’s meeting.
A point of order by Cr Gavan Holt reminded councillors and officers that rules now required meeting attendees to use non-discriminatory terms when addressing councillors or officers.
Mayor Dan Straub had just called for wellbeing director Wendy Gladman to present a report.
His nod to Mrs Gladman went against new rules that require her to be addressed as “director Gladman”.
Cr Holt said: “I noticed we passed the new governance rules 15 minutes ago. We’re already deviating from them on the matter of how we address each other.”
With chuckles from councillors and officers, Cr Straub said: “Thank you for picking up that point of order Cr Holt. ... from this point forward I think we will try as individuals to stick to those new rules adopted in the way we address each other.”
“Thank you for picking up on that Cr Holt,” he said.
Loddon Shire’s governance rules now state that “all officers should be addressed as Officer … [surname] or by their official title.”