By NATALIE GALLENTI
MELTON City Councillor Lara Carli has taken a leave of absence due to illness and will not return to her council duties until 26 October.
Cr Carli has not attended the last two meetings of Melton City Council and was seeking a formal leave of absence last week which was approved by the council.
Meanwhile, in other council news, a report will be provided to the council to investigate a Local Women’s Recognition Award that would acknowledge the great contribution that women within the community make to the municipality.
Mayor Kathy Majdlik also said the mayoral ball would be scrapped and funds would instead go towards selected charity organisations.
Meanwhile, the Melton Learning and Library Hub has taken out the Sustainable Procurement Award at the 2013 Procurement Australia Awards.
The awards were announced at a gala dinner last month and recognise member organisations that have developed and implemented sustainable procurement policies and processes that reduce overall carbon footprint or emissions, conserve energy or protect the environment, conserve water, enhance biodiversity and reduce waste.
Cr Kathy Majdlik said the council was thrilled to win the award and believed it would be the first of many.
“It’s very exciting to win this award. We set out to construct a sustainable and energy efficient building to minimise heating, cooling and lighting costs, and we are very proud to have achieved this goal,” she said.
“We hope that the Library and Learning Hub will inspire other organisations to new levels of environmental sustainability and efficiency when embarking on similar projects.”
