To consider the suggested amendments to the council’s constitution proposed by the constitution review working group for recommendation to Council.

The chairman of the committee presented the report and highlighted that at the final meeting, the members of the working group had agreed the proposed changes without any dissenting voices.

A member of the working group and committee noted that they had not been able to be present at the meeting and they would not have agreed with some of the proposed amendments to the constitution.    The concerns raised were:

·         Elected members should declare membership of any body or organisation listed in schedule 2 rather than being a position of management or control of those organisations.     The current wording was not understood by members of the public and did not cover how “closed” organisations operated.  Elected members should be transparent on this point.

·         The continuing absence of the publication of monitoring officer resolutions when members were in breach of the code of conduct.   It was confirmed that group leaders were informed as a matter of practice where unitary councillors were in breach of the code of conduct but that this was not specified in the arrangements for dealing with code of conduct complaints.     It was agreed that this would be clarified under the monitoring officer resolutions section of the arrangements document. 

At the request of a member of the committee, it was agreed that:

·         in relation to the appointment of a director of public health, there was cross-referencing at 4.9.19 to make it clear that the shortlisting for this post was joint with the secretary of state. 

·         A sentence deletion be undone on page 1 of the arrangements for dealing with standards complaints in relation to the process being confidential.  

A member of the committee proposed an amendment on the councillors’ code of conduct (Part 5, Section 2) at paragraph 5.2.14, Schedule 2 Interests (first box) so that it reads “any body of which the member is a member (this does not include where the member is appointed or nominated by council)”:     The chairman made it clear that he would oppose any proposal which would substantively change the agreed recommendations of the cross party working group and requested a vote.

A vote was conducted as follows:

In favour of the amendment: 2

Against the amendment:         3 (chairman’s casting vote was used)

Following a query from a member of the committee, it was confirmed that where there were recommended actions in relation to monitoring officer resolutions, this would form part of the annual report on code of conduct complaints.   

A member of the committee proposed an amendment so that elected Members names were published if they were found to be in breach of the code of conduct under monitoring officer resolution.

A vote was conducted as follows:

In favour of the amendment: 2

Against the amendment:         3 (chairman’s casting vote was used)

A named vote was conducted in relation to each recommendation in the report:

a)        having regard to the work undertaken by the constitution working group, the revised constitution as set out at appendices 2 to 9, be recommended to full Council for adoption, with implementation with effect from annual council in May 2018;

For:                     Councillors Newman; Stone

Against:              Councillors Harvey; Powers

Chairman’s casting vote used

(b)     authority be delegated to the solicitor to the council to make technical amendments (grammatical, formatting, and consistency) necessary to finalise the revised constitution;

For:                     Councillors Harvey, Powers, Stone, Newman

Against               None

(c )    the revised whistleblowing policy at appendix 11 be adopted with immediate effect;

For:                     Councillors Harvey; Powers; Stone; Newman                      

Against:              None

(d)     the revised standards complaint procedure is adopted with implementation to take effect on new complaints received from annual council in May 2018.

For:         Councillors Stone;  Newman

Against:  Councillors Harvey; Powers

Chairman’s casting vote used

The working group were thanked for their work.

RESOLVED

That

(a)     having regard to the work undertaken by the constitution working group, the revised constitution as set out at appendices 2 to 9, be recommended to full Council for adoption, with implementation with effect from annual council in May 2018;

(b)     authority be delegated to the solicitor to the council to make technical amendments (grammatical, formatting, and consistency) necessary to finalise the revised constitution;

(c )    the revised whistleblowing policy at appendix 11 be adopted with immediate effect; and

(d)     the revised standards complaint procedure is adopted with implementation to take effect on new complaints received from annual council in May 2018.