Issue - meetings
ANY OTHER BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT
Meeting: 21/10/2014 - Standards Advisory Committee (Item 4)
ANY OTHER BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT
To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.
Minutes:
Barry Lowe Non-Attendance at SAC
The Chair informed SAC members that:-
· He had noted that Barry Lowe (Co-opted SAC member) had not attended any of the four SAC meetings held in the 2013/14 Municipal Year, nor the SAC meeting held on 8 September [2014/15 Municipal Year], neither was he present this evening or sent apologies for absence.
· He had sought the advice of the Clerk to ascertain what the appropriate next steps would be for the SAC to address this non-attendance, and following the advice of Legal Services the clerk had:-
- Written to Mr Lowe on behalf of the Chair, but had not received a response.
o Endeavoured to contact Mr Lowe by telephone without success.
o Written to Mr Lowe again on behalf of the Chair:-
ØAsking if Mr Lowe wished to continue as a co-opted member of the SAC.
ØNotifying him that the Chair proposed that his non-attendance be raised at this SAC meeting and inviting him to make any representations he would like SAC to consider.
No response had been received, however the letter had only sent on Monday 20 October by post and email.
· SAC members had recently received an email from the Clerk informing them of the resignation of Denzil Johnson (Co-opted SAC member) and therefore there may be two vacancies for the position of Co-opted SAC member to address.
During a short discussion SAC members expressed the view that:-
· Mr Lowe’s non-attendance should be addressed as soon as possible.
· That a recruitment exercise should commence immediately with and advertisement for the vacancy created by the resignation of Mr Johnson.
· Should a further vacancy be created by the removal of Mr Lowe from SAC membership, that this be filled by the applicant assessed as coming second in the recruitment exercise.
The Chair summarised that:-
· Mr Lowe had, to date, not provided a satisfactory explanation as to past non-attendance.
· Had been notified that SAC would discuss his non-attendance this evening, but only had a limited opportunity to make representations for SAC to consider.
· SAC members considered this non-attendance should be addressed so that co-opted members who did not wish to continue in this role could be replaced and all vacancies addressed in one exercise.
Accordingly the Chair Moved and it was:-
Resolved
1. That SAC again consider the matter of Mr Lowe’s non-attendance at the next SAC meeting [13 January 2015] together with any response from Mr Lowe to the Clerk’s letter dated 20 October 2014, or any representations made for SAC to consider; and at that point, should it be appropriate, that SAC draw the attention of full Council [21 January 2015] to Mr Lowe’s non-attendance and recommend that he be replaced on the Committee.
2. That a recruitment exercise commence immediately [22 October 2014], initially with an advertisement, for the position/s of co-opted membership to the SAC.
Action by: Angus Taylor (Principal Committee Officer, Democratic Services)
Meic Sullivan-Gould (Interim Monitoring Officer, LPG)
John Williams (Service Head Democratic Services, LPG)