minutes

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 5th August 2008 (Minute Nos. 230 - 233) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

declarations of interest

No interests were declared.

part a minutes for confirmation

monitoring officer annual report

The Corporate Services Director introduced his annual report, which related to his role as Monitoring Officer. He explained that the report had been set out in a template that followed the Audit Commission's guidelines.

The Monitoring Officer went through the report, section by section and highlighted specific points.

Constitution Review

The Monitoring Officer explained that an initial report had been submitted to the Executive on 18th November 2008. The Review aimed to modernise the decision-making process, including individual decision-making for Executive Members, and aimed to make it more robust. He also explained the proposals for a more comprehensive local engagement process, to include Kent County Council Local Boards, Swale Borough Council Area Forums, Parish Councils and other partners. This would run for a trial pilot for one year, starting in January 2009.

Lawfulness and Maladministration

He advised that as there had been no major issues, this section of the report was similar to previous years'.

Good Governance and Code of Conduct

The Monitoring Officer explained that this section outlined issues that had come to him and the approach that he had adopted. He explained that he had the support of the Group Leaders to raise any issues as necessary.

In response to a question regarding Paragraph 11 in the report, the Monitoring Officer advised that Members who were dual-hatted needed to declare a personal interest, if necessary, and could then speak and vote on the matter. He reported that, following a review undertaken by the Head of Development Services, Planning Committee Members would get more detailed and dedicated Planning training in the future which should be beneficial when issues of pre-determination or bias occurred. He explained that he also gave informal advice to Members when appropriate.

The Monitoring Officer explained that one of the main tasks of the year had been embedding the new Code of Conduct.

Reports from the Local Government Ombudsman

Reference was made to the table on page five of the report and the Monitoring Officer reported that that no maladministration had been found. The table showed issues that had exhausted the normal route of complaints, where a satisfactory resolution had not occurred. A complaint would normally be dealt with by an individual department, the next step would be for it to go the Chief Executive and if it was still not resolved it would be dealt with by the Swale Arbitrator. He explained that the system of having an external arbitrator worked well and a new Swale arbitrator had just been employed. The Head of Legal emphasised that the arbitrator dealt with maladministration issues, not those concerned with the Code of Conduct. Complaints were being processed well, within agreed targets.

The Ethical Framework and Support to the Standards Committee

The Monitoring Officer explained that the key issue within the Standards Committee was the change to local assessment of complaints. His role looked at Code of Conduct matters in Town and Parish Council meetings, not at how meetings were carried out, and it was important to stand back from 'tit for tat' issues that may take place at meetings. Town and Parish Councils were autonomous bodies.

Forward Plan

The Monitoring Officer explained that the Forward Plan was now well embedded within the Council as a key agenda and business planning document. It provided forward planning of items that would be submitted to the Executive and Council.

Attendance at Standards Board Assembly

The Monitoring Officer explained that following the adoption of the revised Code of Conduct, it had been decided that there should be some revisions. The Monitoring Officer reported that he would advise the Standards Committee of any updates, as necessary.

Guidance of how important good conduct and high standards were had been revised and the Monitoring Officer explained that he would report back to the Standards Committee on its role with regard to governance.

Conclusion and Comments

In conclusion, the Monitoring Officer explained that there were both pro-active and reactive elements to his role. He advised that early intervention was the key to resolving complaints.

The Chairman thanked the Monitoring Officer for his report.

RECOMMENDED:
(1)

That the Standards Committee notes the report and the following action points:

To consider the governance arrangements under the revised Use of Resources assessment, including:

• How well prepared the Council is for dealing with all complaints in the first instance.
• How integrated is the work on governance, probity, etc. within the overall governance framework of the Council. In particular, it will be necessary to consider whether the Annual Governance Statement can be improved to reflect this work and whether there are any actions that could help to demonstrate that the Standards Committee is part of rather than a separate aspect of the Council's work.
• Reporting to the Standards Board on activity.

Monitoring Officer

decision notice in respect of a hearing sub-committee

The Monitoring Officer introduced his report which included the Decision Notice in respect of the Hearing Sub-Committee held to consider allegations of breach of the Code of Conduct by three Members of Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council. He welcomed feedback from the three Members of the Standards Committee who were present at the hearing. They considered the background papers to the hearing had been comprehensive and that the hearing had been chaired well. They felt they had learnt a lot and congratulated the Investigator Officer for his work on the case.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that notification of the decision of the hearing had been sent to the complainant who appeared to be content with the resolution.

consultation held on a code of conduct for local authority members and officers

The Monitoring Officer introduced his report which requested a response by the Standards Committee to a Consultation on a Code of Conduct for Local Authority Members and Officers. The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) were seeking views on specific issues relating to amendments to the Code of Conduct for Members.

The Monitoring Officer went through the report and the suggested response to the consultation and explained that the questions within it were relevant to Local Authority Members. Responses were set out in the report and some additional comments were added.

Question 1

The Head of Legal and Monitoring Officer considered that anyone in public office needed to behave decently in both their public and private life.

Question 2

Discussion ensued and it was considered that response to this question needed to be tighter.

Question 3

The Head of Legal suggested that the term 'representative' was not a sufficient definition.

Question 5

Discussion ensued and the Monitoring Officer explained that it may be considered that the Code of Conduct process was not working if a case was not proceeded until the criminal process had been completed. It was suggested that a query be added to the response to determine whether there was an issue of a Member still serving on a Committee whilst a legal inquiry was being carried out.

Question 6

Members agreed that the registration of gifts and hospitality should remain at the threshold value of £25.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that he would report to the next meeting of the Standards Committee, following the responses being fed into the consultation process.