Agenda item

Sara Freckleton, Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer

 The Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer introduced the report as circulated.  Members of the Working Group included Councillors Hay, Smith and Godwin, but the Monitoring Officer had compiled the report containing the Working Group’s deliberations and recommendations for consideration by the committee.

The report set out the recommendations of the Constitution Working Group with regards to those parts of the Council Constitution which needed to be reviewed, as per the Council agreed Action Plans. 

The Working Group took a view on the need for the Staff and Support Services Committee (S&SSC) and decided that it’s functions could be delegated to the Appointments Committee, the Chief Executive, Strategic Directors and Assistant Directors as appropriate.  It was also proposed that a Staffing Working Group and a Constitution Working Group would be established to provide members the opportunity to input into staffing and constitutional matters.  These changes were set out in the documents comprising Appendix 2.

The Working Group did not make a specific recommendation as to when these changes should be implemented.  This could be done immediately or, alternatively, in May when the wider constitution review would be finalised.  There were pros and cons to both options and the committee would need to take a view. 

The Appointments Committee was a concept that had been considered by the committee earlier in the year, and,  at the time this related solely to statutory officers.  However, in recognition of the changes consequential to the recommendation regarding the discontinuance of S&SSC,  the Working Group felt that that the functions of the Appointments Committee should be extended to include responsibility for the appointment of the Chief Executive, Strategic Directors and Assistant Directors.  The recommendation of the group was that the Appointments Committee should consist of 9 members, be politically proportionate and to include at least 1 Cabinet Member.

The Group had looked at the current JNC Committee and to ensure that the JNC Conditions of service for Local Authority Chief Executives were reflected, and some minor changes to the functions of the JNC Disciplinary Committee .were recommended as well as the establishment of a JNC Appeals Committee.  

In response to the public interest report, a series of amendments to the Constitution are recommended by the Working Group which are intended to clarify both the role of the Borough Solicitor in conducting litigation on behalf of the Council and also the constraints (financial limits) which apply to the Borough Solicitor and other officers when exercising delegated authority.  The amendments suggested to Articles 14 and 13 were included within Appendices 5 and 6 to the report and the Committee was also asked to approve the amendments to the Part 3H of the Constitution (Employee Delegation Scheme) which had, unfortunately been omitted in error from the recommendation 7 in the report.

The report recommended 2 amendments to the Council Rules of Procedure on voting.  The first was to require that appointments to statutory officer posts be approved by a 2/3rds majority.  The second required that the number of members voting for, against and abstaining on a matter were recorded in the minutes of the meeting, in line with the recommendation of KPMG.  This would only apply in circumstances where a vote was taken and not when a decision was taken by affirmation of the meeting.

The Working Group had defined ‘significant decisions’ (Appendix 6 / Article 13); this described non-executive decisions that would fall into the category of ‘key’ were they taken under executive powers.  It was felt that this would offer clarity to Members and the public as to the importance of decisions on the Forward Plan for Council. 

The introduction of a scrutiny, review and call-in process for significant decisions made by the S&SSC would require a large number of amendments to various parts of the constitution.  In view of recommendation 1 of the report, the discontinuation of the S&SSC, these amendments had not been drafted, but would be done by the Borough Solicitor for consideration by Council on 13 December, if required.

The Chairman invited members of the working group to add further comment;

Councillor Godwin highlighted that the logistics of distributing hard copies of the constitution following any amendments had been discussed by the group, but no conclusion reached.

Councillor Smith thanked the Borough Solicitor for her efforts.  He highlighted that the working group would continue, as further refinement was still required.  Whilst he accepted that at least one member of Cabinet should form membership of committees/working groups, he felt that there should be some reference to the maximum number of which a committee/group could consist. 

The following responses were given by the Borough Solicitor to questions from members of the committee;

• A reference to the maximum number of Cabinet Members would be added.
• The provision within Article 13 of the Constitution relating to decision making by Overview and Scrutiny Committees was an existing provision and had not been added by the working group.  The provision is simply intended to relate to rules relating to the conduct of business of those committees. .
• The recommended Staffing Working Group responsibilities derived from the functions of the current S&SSC Terms of Reference, although it was difficult to consider what functions are referred to by function number 7 (Appendix 2A).  In those circumstances, the Leader’s view that there was no obvious current requirement for the Staffing Working Group, but that this could be reviewed in future if the need arose, was accepted.
• It is possible to devise a scrutiny, review and call-in process in respect of “Significant decisions” made by S&SSC, This would require a significant number of amendments to various parts of the Constitution which had not been drafted ahead of this meeting in view of the recommendation to dissolve S&SSC.  However, the amendments could be drafted prior to Council in December if required.
• There had been no attempt to list the matters that would go to Cabinet, but if members felt it necessary, this could be clarified within the report.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services suggested that in his view S&SSC should be discontinued with immediate effect if the recommendation was agreed at Council.  This, rather than wait until May 2011, at which point there was no selection Council, given that there were no elections.

The Chairman moved to consider the recommendations;

Upon being put to the vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that;

1.

1. The recommendation of the Consultation Working Group to discontinue the Staff and Support Services Committee be accepted.

2. Recommendation 1 be implemented immediately after Council on 13 December 2010.

3. The amendments to the Employee Scheme of Delegation and the membership and functions of the Constitution Working Group set out in Appendix 2 be approved.

4. The setting up of an Appointments Committee with the members and functions set out in Appendix 3 be approved.

5. The revisions to the functions of the JNC Disciplinary Committee and the setting up of a JNC Appeals Committee for (Chief Executive, Strategic Directors and Assistant Directors) as set out in Appendix 4 be approved.

6. The revised Article 14 of Part 2 of the Council’s Constitution as set out in Appendix 5 be approved.

7. The revised Article 13 of Part 2 of the Council’s Constitution as set out in Appendix 6 and revisions to part 3H of the Constitution as set out in Appendix 7 be approved.

8. The amendment to Rule 14 of the Council’s Procedure Rules (Voting on appointment of statutory officers) as set out in paragraph 5.2.2 of the report be approved.

9. The amendment to Rule 14 of the Council Procedure Rules and to the corresponding Rules in the Cabinet , Committee and Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules (Recording the Number of Votes), as set out in paragraph 6.1.2 of the report be approved.

10. The revised Protocol for Member/Officer Relations as set out in Appendix 9 be approved.

2.         The Committee recommends to Council

a)     Approval of items 1-10 above

b)     That the Borough Solicitor be authorised to make any further minor amendments to the Constitution which are consequential upon the changes approved by Council.

Councillor Godwin was dissatisfied that no conclusion had been reached with regards to how hard copies of the revised constitution would be circulated.

A number of members felt that it was unnecessary to circulate hard copies of the constitution, preferring to access it via the internet, which guaranteed it was up to date.  They struggled to justify the circulation and continual updating of hard copies to all members given that only certain elements were critical to members (Rules of Procedure, etc). 

They accepted that the version and date last updated should be clearly stated on all copies of the constitution and that a regularly updated version be situated in the Members Room at the Municipal Offices.