election of chairman

election of vice-chairman

welcome

Christopher Maclean (the new Independent Member, to be ratified by Council on 21st November 2007) and Councillor Mills (attending as the Parish Council representative) were welcomed to the meeting.

minutes

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 28th February 2007 (Minute Nos. 762 - 767) were taken as read, confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record, subject to Councillor Mills being in attendance and apologies from Councillor Parry.

declarations of interest

No interests were declared.

part a minutes for confirmation

new corporate governance local code and framework

The Head of Audit introduced his report which had been submitted to the Executive on 10th October 2007. He explained that it set out new governance requirements, prescribed by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants (CIPFA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE), for the Local Code of Governance for Swale. He explained that it was in draft form and was being benchmarked against other Local Authorities' governance principles.

The Head of Audit brought the Committee's attention to a tabled paper which set out against each of Swale Borough Council's (SBC) commitment, the documents that were in place to support compliance. The Corporate Services Director explained that he had compiled the paper since the report had gone to the Executive, plus feedback from other Local Authorities, to help draw the whole process together.

A Member praised the document, but believed there was an issue in the review of governance arrangements and suggested that the Constitution was reviewed and that Executive and scrutiny arrangements were checked to ensure they were working efficiently. The Corporate Services Director responded by reporting that those issues would be raised at Executive on 7th November 2007, when the Corporate Improvement Plan would be considered. The Member considered it more appropriate that Council reviewed these matters, rather than Executive. The Corporate Services Director suggested that a working group could be set up with representation from all political groups.

A Member noted that internal governance was progressed through the Audit Committee and scrutiny and external governance involved engagement with local people and stakeholders; this resulted in a more complex approach with complainants. He stressed the need to be rigorous in all parts of the process and to adopt a cycle where SBC reviewed particular issues to ensure they were working and whether they could be more effective. The Head of Audit explained that a programme of work needed to be added to support the process.

In response to a question, the Head of Audit explained that the draft code would be considered at Audit Committee on 13th December 2007 and then finalised at Full Council. He advised that this was an interim process, with interim assurance statements which would be updated to make up the final statement. The interim findings would be reported to the Audit Committee in March 2008 and then would include Member involvement in June 2008. He did not consider that many changes would be made to the draft.

the code of conduct - the code uncovered

The Corporate Services Director, in his capacity as Monitoring Officer, presented a training DVD to the Committee and brought Members' attention to the tabled papers that accompanied the training. Discussion followed with regard to confidentiality issues and the difficulty of determining public interest, versus confidentiality. The Head of Legal explained that an item was not only confidential if it was stamped as such. A Councillor believed that members of the public had gained more of an understanding of pre determination, especially with regard to planning application issues. The Corporate Services Director considered that the DVD was valuable guidance for Members and would check whether Parish Councils had seen the DVD.

Corporate Services Director

monitoring officer report

The Corporate Services Director introduced his annual report, which related to his role as Monitoring Officer.

He pointed out some differences from his initial report in February 2007, namely the Revised Code of Conduct and getting it adopted by all the Parish Councils in the Borough. He explained that the existing Code of Conduct for Officers was in the Constitution. This mirrored most other Local Authorities' and consideration to any modifications would be looked into when the Constitution was reviewed. He explained that some cases from Parish Council had shown that problems had arisen over how they had been administered, rather than behaviour of Councillors and Code of Conduct issues. He suggested that a training session with Parish Councils would be beneficial. He explained that when problems arose on Parish Councils' administration, the Parish Council contact the Kent Association of Parish Councils initially and then matters of conduct be referred to SBC. He highlighted comments made at the Standards Board Assembly concerning mediation and the role it could play when matters were referred locally. The Corporate Services Director brought Members' attention to paragraph 60 in the report with regard to membership of the Standards Committee and advised that he would report back to the Committee on this matter.

Corporate Services Director

In response to a question, the Corporate Services Director explained that it would be necessary to report back to the Standards Committee in early 2008, with regard to the administration of local filters.

Democratic Services Officer