Issue - meetings
Members' Attendance and Timesheets Monitoring (to follow)
Meeting: 18/03/2014 - Standards Advisory Committee (Item 3)
3 Members' Attendance and Timesheets Monitoring PDF 137 KB
To note the monitoring information contained in the report.
Minutes:
John Williams, Service Head, Democratic Services, introduced the report and updated the Committee on a range of matters related to Members attendance at formal meetings and training events, the completion of timesheets and register of interests. The Service Head tabled an updated Appendix 1 and highlighted the following:
· Significant numbers of Members have not submitted their time sheets in a timely manner which continues to be an issue. However as it was the last meeting in the administration he suggested there would be little purpose in sending further reminder letters to Members.
- The Council was on target to introduce electronic timesheets after the local election.
The Committee noted that although it was not mandatory, it was however important to remind Members of the importance of filling in their timesheets. Councillors Edgar and Uz-Zaman each stated that they had recently submitted timesheets which were not reflected in the updated Appendix 1. Nevertheless the Committee agreed that the Members’ attendance and timesheet monitoring report was useful information, and therefore should continue to be submitted to the Committee.
The Committee discussed why some Members did not prioritise updating their attendance records. It was suggested that this behaviour may change if the electorate were able to easily view this information, for example, creating an on-line button that could request a Members’ timesheet.
A Member enquired whether the new electronic timesheet could be synchronised to diaries, and asked that where possible, the electronic forms could be populated with automated information already held in the Council’s system, such as Committee meeting and training attendance, including duration, freeing Members to complete essential information that was not stored.
Resolved
1. That the Committee note the information set out in Appendices 1, 2 and 3 to the report in relation to Councillors’ submission of timesheets, attendance at formal meetings and training events, and completion of
the register of interests during the current municipal year;
2. That the Committee continue to receive monitoring reports on these matters.
Action:
John Williams, Service Head, Democratic Services