Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer to submit a report requesting the Committee’s  comments on a set of documents which will form the Constitution and the Committee is also asked to provide comments on a proposed Calendar of Meetings for 2019/20

The Monitoring Officer

 

(a)  submitted a report (copies of which had previously been circulated to Members) which requested the Committee’s comments on a set of documents, which would form the Constitution and on a proposed Calendar of Meetings for 2019/20;

 

(b)  circulated an amended proposed Calendar of Meetings for 2019/20;

 

(c)  advised that the set of documents and proposed Calendar of Meetings were in final draft for Members to comment on at this meeting, before being submitted to Council for approval and adoption on 17 April.  Members were encouraged to provide comments up to the first week of April, to enable the Monitoring Officer to collate these into an appropriate format;

 

(d)  provided an overview of the report, highlighting

 

                       i.        Council Functions and Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A1 of the report.  This document detailed how the Council operated and its decision making arrangements.

                      ii.        Cabinet Functions and Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A2 of the report.

                     iii.        Officer Scheme of Delegation (as detailed at Appendix A3 of the report).  This contained general rather than specific delegations.  Previously, officers had been granted very specific delegations to undertake certain actions and this slowed the decision making process.  Making delegations more general helped officers to act within their authority more easily.  The document would be further updated to include changes resulting from the Senior Leadership Team restructure.

                     iv.        Audit and Standards Committee Functions and Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A4 of the report).  Audit and Standards Committee would replace the current Governance Committee.  This document contained the new functions and how the Committee would operate.

                      v.        Employment Committee Functions and Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A5 of the report).  This document detailed all employment policies, strategies and the recruitment of Chief Officers (Chief Executive and Directors.

                     vi.        Licensing Committee Functions and Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A6 of the report).  This document details how the Licensing Committee works in practice.

                   vii.        Planning Committee Functions and Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A7 of the report).  The Planning Department had been reviewed independent of the new Governance arrangements.  Members had provided comments on Planning Committee functions and procedures throughout the independent review process.

                  viii.        Scrutiny Committee Functions and Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A8 of the report).  This details how Scrutiny Committee would function and operate.

                     ix.        Meeting Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A9 of the report).  This document contains information relating to all meetings (eg rules of debate)

                      x.        Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A10 of the report).  This document details how the Council would operate.  Council set the budget and Policy Framework each year and Cabinet would operate within this framework.

                     xi.        Financial Procedure Rules (as detailed at Appendix A11 of the report.  The Procedure Rules had been updated to best practice.

                   xii.        Member Roles (as detailed at Appendix A12 of the report).  This document had been updated in view of the new governance arrangements and adjusted to demonstrate responsibilities attached to roles.  This would assist the Independent Remuneration Panel when they consider the special responsibility allowances.

                  xiii.        Petition Scheme (as detailed at Appendix A13 of the report).  The Petition Scheme was previously part of the Council Procedure Rules.  It had been updated to provide more clarity on receipt of petitions.  It is important to have good rules to govern this.

                  xiv.        Proper Officer Delegations (as detailed at Appendix A14 of the report).  Legislation required the Council to have certain officers in specific roles with particular responsibilities.  The document had been updated to reflect the Council’s new management and governance arrangements.

                   xv.        Calendar of Meetings (as detailed at Appendix B of the report).  There would be ten meetings of Cabinet, instead of five cycles of the Policy Committees.  In addition, Planning Committee would be held monthly, rather than every three weeks.  The other Committees would run on five cycles per year.  Previously, two meetings of Council had been held to consider the budget.  It was proposed that Scrutiny Committee would consider the budget (at an additional meeting) and provide comments to Cabinet who would propose the budget to Council.  The Employment Committee was not included on the Calendar, as meetings would be created on an ad hoc basis.

 

Benchmarking on meeting start times had been undertaken on other Councils in Leicestershire.  Cabinet was usually held in the daytime.  The Governance Development Group had considered the findings and had suggested that Cabinet start at 2pm.  The Leader of the Council, Councillor Joe Orson wished to highlight that such an arrangement depended on the composition of Cabinet and meetings may be moved to a later time (4pm had also been suggested) if more suitable.

A Member asked if officer delegations would require Council approval.  The Monitoring Officer clarified that Council delegations required functions of Council to be agreed by Council.  Executive delegations would be delegated by the Leader in capacity of his own delegation scheme.  The Officer Scheme of Delegation would be supported, providing the Leader was so minded by an executive delegation scheme, which would provide delegation to portfolio holders and officers for the executive functions.  Council approved Council functions and the Leader approved executive functions.

 

A Member referred to paragraph 2.10 of the Planning Committee Functions and Procedure Rules, stating that the requirement for objectors/supporters to submit any presentations in support of public speaking appeared to make their attendance at the meeting irrelevant, apart from being able to question for clarity.  The Member also highlighted the wording used at paragraph 2.25 of the Planning Committee Functions and Procedure Rules, which was used to describe unacceptable public participation at a meeting, asking if this language was necessary.

 

Another Member responded that there was no intention to negate the need for public speakers.  Any presentations should support, not replace speakers.  Speakers did not have to submit speeches but should provide supporting documents, such as pictures prior to meetings.  The Member advised that they agreed with the wording used to describe unacceptable public participation, as in their experience there was an advantage having the words to support challenges to unacceptable behaviour.

 

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that in order to convey the wording at paragraph 2.10 correctly, it would be amended to read, ‘Where public speaking is going to be supported by a presentation, it should be presented within two working days’.

 

Members highlighted a small number of grammatical errors within the documents for amendment.  The Chair referred to paragraph 3.2 of Members’ Roles, highlighting that they did not agree that the Mayor was the conscience of the Council.  The Mayor was the public face of the Council and should be impartial and not at all controversial.  Elected Members were the conscience of the Council.

 

It was confirmed that the agreed quorum for Planning Committee meetings would be seven Members.

 

A Member queried if agendas would be available in hard copy from the new civic year onwards and Members raised concerns about having to read large documents electronically, stating that this was more difficult than reading hard copies.  It was essential to have agenda hard copies for Planning Committee meetings and proposals to remove these would not be supported.

 

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the provision of agendas in only electronic version should be the objective.  New Members would be given the opportunity to opt out of agenda hard copies.  This would be encouraged but not enforced.

 

Members discussed the meeting start times, highlighting that it was important to agree times, which would be suitable for employed Members and the public.  This was particularly important in relation to Planning Committee meetings.

 

The Monitoring Officer stated that Planning Committee meetings were an example of meetings which were attended by large numbers of the public but Cabinet and other meetings, which did not draw the same level of public attendance could start earlier and be more conducive to decision making.

 

It was agreed that Planning Committee meetings would remain at 6pm, Cabinet meetings would start at 2pm, depending on its composition and all other meetings would start at 6pm.

 

There being no further comments or questions from Members, it was

 

RESOLVED that

 

(1)  the following documents be referred to Council for adoption:-

 

Appendix A1 Council Functions and Procedure Rules

Appendix A2 Cabinet Functions and Procedure Rules

Appendix A3 Officer Scheme of Delegation

Appendix A4 Audit and Standards Committee Functions and Procedure Rules

Appendix A5 Employment Committee Functions and Procedure Rules

Appendix A6 Licensing Committee Functions and Procedure Rules

Appendix A7 Planning Committee Functions and Procedure Rules

Appendix A8 Scrutiny Committee Functions and Procedure  Rules

Appendix A9 Meetings Procedure Rules

Appendix A10 Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules

Appendix A11 Financial Procedure Rules

Appendix A12 Member Roles

Appendix A13 Petitions Scheme

Appendix A14 Proper Officer Designations;

 

(2)  the proposed Calendar of Meetings 2019/20 be referred to the Annual Meeting of the Council.