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478
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annual monitoring officer's report
The Monitoring Officer introduced his report which provided an overview of the Monitoring Officer's role in the past year, and provided an opportunity to review and learn from experience. The report also set out the Monitoring Officer's statutory responsibilities and summarised how several of these duties had been discharged in the past year and brought attention to some of the more significant developments which may require attention. He went through the report and highlighted various points and Members were invited to comment.
The Monitoring Officer reported that a Constitution Review was currently been undertaken. He explained that changing legislation resulted in the need to change the Constitution so that it was kept up-to-date and fit for purpose. This would be even more important when the Council moved to all-out elections in 2011 and when the forthcoming Localism Bill was published. He explained that it was important to regularly review the Constitution to ensure the decision making process was as reasonable as possible. He brought Members' attention to Appendix I in the report which gave an overview of the areas to be considered by the review and explained that these would be looked at by the General Purposes Committee.
The Monitoring Officer advised that Swale Borough Council's (SBC) governance arrangements had received good comments from the auditors.
In response to queries, the Monitoring Officer suggested that impacts from changes that the Coalition Government had implemented, including what would happen after the abolition of Standards for England, were still not clear, although Members would still be required to register their interests.
A Member suggested that the word 'knowingly' was added to point 37 to read: 'knowingly failing to register an interest, or deliberately seeking to mislead the public about an interest will become a criminal offence'. The Monitoring Officer explained that, as comments like this were all that were known at the moment, and not necessarily how it was going to be, this type of issue could be flagged up when more details of the Localism Bill were known.
In response to a question, the Monitoring Officer confirmed that the Audit Commission would finally be abolished in 2013. A Select Committee would look into how Local Authorities would be audited in the future.
A Member raised concern with the comment on Page 16 of the report, Roles and Responsibilities of Councillors. He considered that Councillors should be allowed to put their constituency interests above the broader public interest of the authority and be fit for residents in their area. Discussion ensued on Councillor roles and a Member considered that their role was divided between political, Ward and Borough and stated that borough should come first. The Monitoring Officer explained that the statement on Page 16 was for clarification and was a collective responsibility for the Council as a whole and it needed to be recognised that there was more than one Councillor role and a balance needed to be struck.
The Monitoring Officer explained that with regard to good governance and code of conduct issues, personal and prejudicial interests had created confusion, especially with Parish Councils. He also advised that there were currently changes taking place in Planning Committee procedures.
Discussion ensued on the Code of Conduct complaints regime and one comment stated that the system in place was a waste of resources. The Monitoring Officer explained that the current system did not allow his role to have any flexibility in the process as he was unable to filter a case out once a formal complaint had been made, however he was able to give advice before the case became a formal complaint.
With regard to the Code of Conduct, the Monitoring Officer advised that there had been some mention of a system that if a Member caused a problem, an election would be called. He advised that another suggestion was that a referendum would be called to deal with a problem locally. He acknowledged that some parts of the Code of Conduct were too procedural, but considered it was important to have in place. The Monitoring Officer emphasised that statements in the report were currently all the information that was available and these could change when the Localism Bill was published. The Parish Council representative suggested that Members, even without the Code of Conduct, needed to comply with the laws in force to everyone, and as such Member issues could be subject to legal proceedings.
The Monitoring Officer advised that maintaining the Register of Interests may be looked at differently following the introduction of the Localism Bill.
The present Code of Conduct for Employees was being reviewed and made more up to date and this included discussions with the Union. The Registration of Officer Interests was being extended to include all employees, not just those on a high grade or in sensitive positions.
With regard to meetings serviced and resourced at SBC, the Monitoring Officer explained that it was not always possible to rationalise the amount of meetings, as some Committees' terms of reference now required two committees to enable them to carry out their work, for example Licensing Act 2003 and General Licensing Committee. The move to all-out elections could also result in changes to the amount of Committees in the future. He advised that some Local Authorities were looking at alternative methods of carrying out good decision making.
Discussion ensued on the attendance statistics included in the report. The analysis methods had been updated from last year and the statistics had been forwarded to Group Leaders. A Member suggested that Planning Working Group meetings should not be included in the statistics. The Monitoring Officer advised that although there was not a certain percentage of attendance required by Members, there was a six-month rule. Concern was raised over the allowance received by Members and some of the poor attendance at meetings, discussions ensued on whether Members should receive allowances solely for meetings they attended, although this was not possible under current legislation, and the different amount of meetings that individual Members should attend, which could make the statistics misleading.
The Monitoring Officer reported that the District Auditor's comments on the Forward Plan had been positive; the Forward Plan had been shown as being utilised as a planning document.
The Member Development Charter had been awarded to SBC in October 2010. The Monitoring Officer congratulated all those involved including Members, the Member Development Working Group and Democratic Services. He explained that the Charter was important for Member development and also for the whole of SBC.
The Monitoring Officer advised that he would update the Standards Committee on the future of the Standards regime, when more information was known.
In respect of covert surveillance, the Monitoring Officer advised that he was now required to report on this.
The Chairman thanked the Monitoring Officer for his report.
RECOMMENDED:
(1) That the report be noted and the following action points be agreed:
(i) That the Standards Committee considers the implications of the Localism and Decentralisation Bill once it is published;
(ii) That the Standards Committee undertake work relevant to maintaining the current regime until it is abolished or replaced and that the rest of its identified work programme be put on hold until it has considered the Bill further.
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annual report on member development
The Monitoring Officer introduced the report which gave an overview of progress in Member Training and Development since May 2009, focussing on attendance and outcomes. He explained that it showed the breadth of training offered to Members at Swale and that SBC also worked with other authorities which helped to reduce costs.
Members raised the following points: was attendance proportional to each political group, and planning training should be offered to Parish Councils.
A Member congratulated the work that Democratic Services had carried out in organising Member training sessions.
The Monitoring Officer acknowledged the need for Parish Council training on planning matters. In view of the Localism Bill, he stressed the importance of training in the future for Borough and Parish Councillors to enable them to become more informed in their decision making.
RESOLVED:
(1) That the Annual Report on Member Development be noted.
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