Agenda item

Report of the Chairman of Staff and Support Services Committee – Councillor Jordan

Councillor Jordan, as chair of the Staff and Support Services Committee introduced the report. He thanked the members of the constitution working group. The recommendations in the report were in response to the Action Plans approved by the Council in March 2010. He advised an amendment to recommendation 2. to allow one further meeting of the Staff and Support Services Committee to deal with one outstanding item of business as set out in 3.1 of the report. A further amendment was that the membership of the constitution working group as set out in Appendix 2C, would be increased to five members.

Regarding the Appointments Committee, he had been advised  that with the current political proportionality the committee of 9 members, could be made up of 3 Conservatives, 5 Liberal Democrats and 1 PAB or a 3,6,0 split. He indicated he was happy with a 3,5,1 split and requested Group Leaders to make their nominations on that basis as a matter of urgency given the need to make appointments in the new structure. The chair and vice-chair would be determined at the first meeting of the committee.  He indicated that the group had concluded that it was not necessary to set up a permanent working group to look at staff issues but this could be set up at any time if there proved to be a need.

As a member of the constitution working group, Councillor Smith gave thanks to the Borough Solicitor and the Monitoring Officer for her work.

Upon a vote the recommendations were carried unanimously.

Resolved that Council:

1. Accepts the recommendation of the Constitution Working Group that the Staff and Support Services Committee should be discontinued.
2. Implements recommendation 1 above with effect from the decision of the Council on the 13^th December 2010 subject to the need for one further meeting of the Staff and Support Services Committee.
3. Approves the amendments to the Employee Scheme of Delegation and the membership and functions of the Constitution Working Group set out in Appendix 2 subject to there being up to 5 members on the working group.
4. Approves the setting up of an Appointments Committee with the membership and functions set out in Appendix 3.
5. Approves the revisions to the functions of the JNC Disciplinary Committee and the setting up of a JNC Appeals Committee as set out in Appendix 4.
6. Approves the revised Article 14 of Part 2 of the Council’s Constitution as set out in Appendix 5.
7. Approves the revised Article 13 of Part 2 to the Council’s Constitution as set out in Appendix 6 and revisions to Part 3H of the Constitution as set out in Appendix 7.
8. Approves the amendment to Rule 14 of the Council Procedure Rules (Voting on appointment of statutory officers) as set out in paragraph 5.2.2 of the report at Appendix A.
9. Approves 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 of Number of Votes), as set out in paragraph 6.1.2 of the report at Appendix A.
10. Approves the revised Protocol for Member/Officer Relations as set out in Appendix 9
11. Authorises the Borough Solicitor to make any further minor amendments to the Constitution which are consequential upon the changes approved by the Council