Issue - meetings
Constitution Review
Meeting: 05/10/2021 - General Purposes Committee (Item 4)
4 Constitution Review PDF 285 KB
Additional documents:
- Appendix. 1 Part A Constitution, item 4 PDF 425 KB
- Appendix. 2 Part B Constitution, item 4 PDF 1 MB
- Appendix. 3 Part C Constitution, item 4 PDF 1 MB
- Appendix. 4 Part D Constitution, item 4 PDF 3 MB
- Appendix. 5 Draft New Code of Conduct, item 4 PDF 368 KB
- Webcast for Constitution Review
Minutes:
Matthew Mannion, Head of Democratic Services, introduced the regular constitution review report and highlighted the changes detailed in the report;
At the request of the Chair, Mr Mannion referred Members to each of the decisions that required consideration and the following was noted;
Part B
- General Purposes Committee Terms of Reference – change to allow general reports on employee appeals and related matters.
AGREED
Part B
- Standards Advisory Committee Terms of Reference – (change agreed by SAC) to highlight their powers to report to Council as required,
AGREED
Part B
- Functions of the Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer, Chief Finance Officer and Corporate Directors – to include reference to make it clear that the Monitoring Officer has direct reporting line to Chief Executive.
It was noted that following suggestions made by the General Purposes Committee during the Senior Management Review, the structure now includes the Monitoring Officer’s direct reporting line to the Chief Executive.
The delegated powers for the Deputy Chief Executive were also set out.
AGREED
Part B - Council Procedure Rules
- Full Executive Procedure Rules should be presented at the AGM
AGREED
Part B - Council Procedure Rules
- Option to include a noting report to the Council agenda setting out any Call-Ins received by the Executive since the last Council meeting.
Mr Mannion explained that Full Council had no formal role in Call-Ins so they could not overturn a decision. However, in line with transparency it was proposed that a regular noting report be put to Council setting out any Call-Ins received, it was highlighted that the report would be for noting as opposed to being for decision. Mr Mannion highlighted the fact that this may take up time at Council meetings, however Officers remained neutral on this matter and sought views from the Committee.
The Committee’s general view was that the current system where Call-Ins are reported to Overview & Scrutiny allowed sufficient time to discuss and consider the Call-In, before referring back to Cabinet for reconsideration, was fit for purpose. It was noted that the Constitution sets out distinctive responsibilities and functions for Cabinet, Council and each Committees which work well and therefore there was no need for noting at Council meetings.
Members were also concerned about the time this would take at Full Council meetings when no decision making was required and therefore questioned whether this would be a good use of time at Council meetings.
It was clear that there was no strong view either way from Officers regarding this option and was mainly about transparency. The overall committee opinion on this proposal was to reject this proposal at there were procedures already in place for reporting Call-Ins.
REJECT
Part B - Council Procedure Rules
- Clarification of Member questions rules and making it clearer where the Mayor is expected to respond.
Mr Mannion explained that further clarifications were required to be introduced to the Executive Scheme of Delegation on Member question rules which had been out of date and did ... view the full minutes text for item 4