It is round 2 of the Lismore City Council monthly meeting tonight at council chambers in Goonellabah.

Round 2 is used deliberately, as council meetings can often degenerate into a verbal fight between councillors with numerous points of order called as well as the public gallery calling out insults and voicing their disagreement with a vote not going their way.

Lismore Council meetings are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

All of tonight's 13 agenda items have been put forward by Councillor (Cr) Big Rob as Questions With Notice, some of which may be turned into Notices of Motion.

They include two items about Nimbin, The Renewable Energy Master Plan, the Koala Advisory Group, Keen Street Bollards and the Back Alley Gallery, to name a few.

Cr Rob has pointed to a number of plans that have been adopted by Lismore City Council (LCC) in the past, some as far back as 2005, yet nothing has progressed in that time.

LCC's Renewable Energy Master Plan is one such plan.

The Renewable Energy Master Plan was adopted in 2014 after an 18-month community consultation. The goal was to generate all of council's electricity from renewable sources by 2023.

General Manager Jon Gibbons, in his reply, said that council has not met its target, and in fact, the adopted Delivery program of 2017-2021, which contained the most recent reference to "meeting renewable targets", had no funding source allocated in any applicable budget.

So, due to councils budget decisions and the lack of funding opportunities, no progress was made.

LCC's Public Art Policy has not been updated since 2005, the Community Strategic Plan 2012, the Housing Strategy 2012 etc. Cr Rob is asking how can councillors make informed decisions with such outdated documents.

That is one of the massive tasks that has faced General Manager Jon Gibbons. Discovering, reviewing and assessing all the plans that have been adopted by LCC in the last seventeen years.

Mr Gibbons's first twelve months, he began at the start of February 2023, has been dealing with flood recovery and budgets let alone the mountains of old council plans that have been living in a draw somewhere within council chambers.

By the way, Mr Gibbons has a confidential report from the General Manager's Performance Review Committee in confidential to be discussed too.

One Question With Notice from Cr Rob asks why Nimbin is the only district being represented by its own advisory board with meetings well away from council staff who travel quite a way to attend the meetings given Nimbin's relative population.

During last week's debate over meeting time, it was suggested by other councillors that Cr Rob may put a motion forward to try and disband the group. However, the motion may lead to the establishment of the Lismore Villages Advisory Group that represents all the LGA's towns and they meet in Lismore at Council Chambers.

With 13 Questions With Notice, Cr Rob is looking for councillor support through someone seconding a potential motion. So, Round 2 could be over very quickly with no support or we are in store for another passionate debate on items and plans that have been in place for some time.

Let's hope for a fight that shows respect for the process and the office, unlike last week.