Issue - meetings

(Assistant to the Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The Panel received a report from Mr S Hill, Senior Democratic Services Officer, regarding Review of Annual Council Meeting and Appointments Procedures.

At the Panel meeting in June 2010, Members agreed that a review should be undertaken on aspects of the Annual Council meeting.

Committee, Sub-Committee and Panel Appointments

Over the last 10 years, the length of Annual Meetings had remained fairly constant. The number of appointments required at the Annual meeting had declined over the years because of a number of reviews of outside bodies, and the introduction of more Leader decision making on executive appointments.

The one exception to the trend was the Annual Meeting in 2009, a county election year, when no new members were elected. On that occasion political groups had more time to sort out their appointment schedules in good time.

Issue 1 – Briefing of Group Leaders and Independent Members Regarding Pro-Rata Requirements before Elections.

The statutory basis for pro-rata memberships came from the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. There were four main principles for appointments to “ordinary committees:”

(a)        not all seats were allocated to the same group.

(b)        a group having a majority on the Council, must have a majority of seats on Committees.

(c)        the total number of seats on Committees must be allocated in the same proportion as the group memberships bear to the Council’s membership.

(d)        the number of seats on each Committee must be proportional to each group’s membership of the Council.

It was advised that these “rules” be reproduced for the Group Leaders meeting each year. Officers suggested a procedure for sending a reminder to Group Leaders before any election. An Excel spreadsheet should be dispatched to the Groups for filling in with the correct numbers allocated to each committee and/or Panel.

Issue 2 – How Consultation between Political Groups might be Improved

Traditionally, a meeting of Group Leaders was called a few days after the May elections once pro-rata calculations were carried out. The following issues were identified:

(a)               It was felt that supplementary agenda with appointments at Full Council should be avoided as much as possible as they caused confusion;

(b)               Within each political group, all candidates should be issued with a list of all the committees and panels before the election.

(c)               An Excel spreadsheet for groups with a list of wards and how many seats per ward would assist.

(d)               The Group Form needed signing early. The number of members signing formed the basis of the pro-rata. It was felt that more than one form could be circulated to speed the process and that officers could deal with the forms at a convenient time.

Issue 3 – Whether the Principle of pro-rata Allocations on Outside Organisations is still fit for purpose.

Allocation to outside organisations was set out in a protocol included within the Council’s Constitution.

Outside bodies that fell into the “Executive” category were appointed by the Leader. Last year this left only 21 representations and 4 deputies to appoint at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32