NRS-21261 | Minutes [Municipal District of Smithfield and Fairfield / Municipality of Smithfield and Fairfield / Municipality of Fairfield / City of Fairfield]

This series consists of minutes of the Ordinary and Special meetings of the Municipal District of Smithfield and Fairfield (1888-1906), Municipality of Smithfield and Fairfield (1906-1920), Municipality of Fairfield (1920-1979) and the City of Fairfield (1979- ).These minute books were created under s.107 and 108 of the Municipalities Act of 1867 (31 Vic. Act No.12, 1867) which was assented to on 23 December 1867, and subsequent legislation.The Ordinary meetings were called for general business and were recurrent meetings prescribed by legislation to be held at regular intervals.Special meetings could be called by the Mayor or by two Councillors for extraordinary business and dealt with a specific issue. Reports were generally also tabled at these meetings as well as at the ordinary meeting relating to the subject.The minutes document the decisions made by the Council at its meetings. The minutes usually include the following sections: attendance of Council members, confirmation of minutes of the previous meeting, business arising out of the minutes of the previous meeting, Mayor's or Official minutes (which brought to Council's attention significant matters within its jurisdiction or of which it had official knowledge), minutes, reports and recommendations from Council committees, reports by Council officers, outward and inward correspondence, petitions, orders of the day or general business, and questions without notice.To ease the work load at general meetings, Council could delegate powers to committees composed of councillors. The committees' minutes and recommendations were submitted to the next Council meeting and form part of that meeting's papers. However, the recommendations were not binding unless, and until, adopted by Council. Major Fairfield committees that regularly submitted minutes and reports included: Finance, Town Planning, Works, Health and Building, Library and Development.In order to discuss confidential business, Council could form itself into the Committee of the Whole during a meeting. A Committee of the Whole was not required to make its business public through the minutes, only its recommendations.The minutes of each meeting of Council and its committees were confirmed at the following meeting and signed by the Mayor or Chairperson and Town Clerk to certify they were a true and accurate record.For the most part, these records are arranged chronologically by the dates of Council meetings regardless of the type of meeting. However, there are instances where the minutes of special meetings are bound with the papers of the ordinary meeting at which their minutes were confirmed, and are thus out of chronological order. The listings have been annotated where these instances have been observed.It should also be noted that many volumes contain only a meeting's associated papers, including minutes of the various committees, not the Council minutes themselves. While these papers naturally pre-date the Council minutes, they are nonetheless listed by Council meeting date.