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annual monitoring officer's report
The Monitoring Officer introduced his report which provided an overview of Monitoring Officer work over the past year, and an opportunity to review and learn from experience. The report set out the Monitoring Officer's statutory responsibilities and summarised how several of those duties had been discharged since the last report in November 2012.
The Monitoring Officer explained that the report formed a part of the overall governance of the Authority and that it was good practice to produce the report which was also reviewed by the external auditor.
The Monitoring Officer highlighted sections of the report and welcomed questions and comments from Members on any issues within the report.
Constitutional Review and Revision
A review of the Constitution had been carried out, but it was still necessary, to pick-up any additional changes, to have a 'care and maintenance' approach to ensure the Constitution was up-to-date. The Monitoring Officer highlighted the six areas where work was considered necessary and these were currently being scoped. In response to a question, the Monitoring Officer explained that he initially scoped a topic for review, this would then go to the General Purposes Committee, and then on to Full Council. A request was made by a Member to allow all Members to view the scoped topic to enable Members to comment on it before the issue was considered by Full Council. The Monitoring Officer explained that Members had an opportunity to comment when the working papers were considered by the General Purposes Committee.
The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the quasi-judicial minutes mentioned at bullet point two, paragraph (5), were in relation to Licensing Committee, not Planning Committee minutes.
In response to a question, the Monitoring Officer explained that it was too premature at the moment to know what the implications of the Lobbying Bill were for Members. He would be able to produce a guidance note, or if there were significant changes, the Constitution would need to be amended.
A Member requested that when changes were made to the Constitution, attention was drawn to the change that had been made; this would enable Members to clearly see any amendments. The Monitoring Officer agreed to do this.
The Monitoring Officer reported that the Council's external auditor had been very happy with the Council's performance.
Good Governance and Code of Conduct
The Monitoring Officer explained that, with reference to paragraph (15) it was important to separate his role of advising on individual behaviour and conduct of members from the administration of a Parish Council, which was the Parish Council's responsibility. He explained that registering of interests was still an issue, especially with regard to pecuniary interests. He confirmed that spouse's, including civil partner's, interests needed to be included in a Councillor's disclosable and non-disclosable pecuniary interests.
Members welcomed the clarity of the summarised guidance under paragraph (25) in the report. A Member suggested that this be issued to all Members. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that he had this information summarised on one side of A4 paper which could be circulated to Members.
A Member explained that, with reference to paragraph (20), he had not seen a draft protocol on planning site meetings. Discussion ensued on a draft that had been viewed by the Chairman of the Planning Committee, but had not yet been agreed.
In response to questions, the Monitoring Officer, firstly confirmed that the draft protocol was listed under paragraph (5), not (6) and then advised that following recommendations made at a Standards Sub-Committee, measures were being taken to improve the way that site visits were managed. This would be in the form of a procedure note, which was in its early stages and would then be submitted to the General Purposes Committee. The Monitoring Officer also outlined some of the issues that had tested the boundary of good governance amongst Members, and confirmed that there had been few times when there had been a need for him to intervene.
A Member suggested that the sentence in the first bullet point on paragraph (25) be added to agenda under Declarations of Interest. It was considered that bullet points two and three were more relevant to the actual Register of Interests. The Monitoring Officer further advised that he was able to add this wording in his role as Monitoring Officer and suggested that the word 'friends' be taken out as it did not apply to the Code of Conduct adopted by this Council. The additional wording would be: 'Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.' The Solicitor advised that in the old code wording had related to 'close associations' and there was no reference to this in the new code. The Monitoring Officer suggested that when the Code was reviewed, it would be possible to discuss close associations in more detail.
The Monitoring Officer referred to the table on pages seven and eight in the report which highlighted the flexibility for him to filter some of the complaints, decrease bureaucracy and to concentrate on more serious cases. The Monitoring Officer responded to questions on the processes involved within the six complaints outlined in the table.
In response to a question, the Monitoring Officer explained that when there was a vexatious issue, the situation might be so extreme that there would be a point where no response would be given to that person, unless new information had been submitted which would then be looked into in the usual manner.
With reference to paragraph (35), a Member queried the involvement of the Chairman in the minutes produced at a meeting. It was confirmed that minutes were initially circulated to Officers for comments, and then sent to the Chairman prior to them being published. This allowed the Chairman to oversee the accuracy of the wording and ensure they were clear, but not to make any significant changes.
The Chairman thanked the Monitoring Officer for his report.
RECOMMENDED:
(1) That the report be noted.
(2) That there be no further action to review the regime at the present time.
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390
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annual report on member training and development
The Monitoring Officer introduced the report which provided an update on progress with Member Training and Development since November 2012, outlining actions taken by the Member Development Working Group to-date and their future work programme. He invited Members to comment on the report.
A Member, who was also a member of the Member Development Working Group asked for input from the Committee on why attendance at Member Training and Briefing sessions was so low, with often less than one third of Members attending. He advised that the Working Group was concerned about this and he suggested ways that attendance could be improved. These included: changing the time of the sessions, i.e. not in the evenings; and making the sessions more interesting. He advised that most of the sessions could not be classed as compulsory training sessions.
Members made the following comments: it was important to attend training as it allowed Members to develop; knowledge provided at the sessions could be beneficial when Members spoke with residents; Officers and external trainers spent time organising the training sessions; the training sessions should be held at Full Council to ensure better attendance; and have two or three training sessions on a Saturday morning.
A motion was proposed that Group Leaders encourage Members at their Group Meetings or 1-2-1s to attend Member Training and Briefing Sessions. This was seconded and agreed upon.
RESOLVED:
(1) That the Annual Report on Member Training and Development be noted.
(2) That it be recommended that Group Leaders encourage Members at their Group Meetings or 1-2-1s to attend Member Training and Briefing Sessions.
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