Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from The Rt. Hon the Lord Mayor, Alderman Peter Estlin, Sophie Anne Fernandes, Christopher Hayward, Jeremy Mayhew, Deputy Tom Sleigh and James Tumbridge.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 8 January 2019.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 8 January 2019 be approved as a correct record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members received an outstanding actions report of the Town Clerk.

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk giving options for different voting systems, which could be used in the election of co-opted Members for the Sub-Committee.

Members agreed that they were generally supportive of the report’s proposal to keep the First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system for electing four co-opted Members onto this Sub Committee. Some Members expressed a preference for Single Transferable Vote (STV) as it led to better representation of the Court, but, on balance, agreed that it would be odd to only include one Sub Committee in isolation.

There was one suggestion that at the next election of co-opted Members for this Sub Committee, the votes are counted via both the FPTP and STV systems to see what the different outcomes would be, with the outcome using FPTP being the valid result. Overall, Members felt that this would not be the appropriate way to measure the difference of the two voting systems for various reasons and agreed that the FPTP system should be maintained.

RESOLVED, that:

·         It be recommended to the Policy & Resources Committee that the ‘First Past The Post’ (FPTP) voting system continue to be used for the election of co-opted Members to the Public Relations and Economic Development Sub-Committee.

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Director of Economic Development proving Members with highlights of the key activity undertaken by the Economic Development Office (EDO) in January 2019.

A Member asked a question regarding the type of pass that the Policy Chair and the Lord Mayor possessed at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Members heard that the Lord Mayor had the full congress pass, which allowed him all access to the congress centre. The Policy Chair had the hotel pass, which enabled her to go to all the fringe events. The Member felt that it was important that the Policy Chair should also have the full congress pass and that if both the Lord Mayor and the Policy Chair were both going, they should be treated equally. The Director of Economic Development explained that he had been negotiating with the World Economic Forum to allow them to have two congress passes but had not been successful this year and would continue to negotiate for next year. The Director gave an overview of the Policy Chair’s programme and the Policy Chair stated that many representatives of financial institutions choose to have the hotel pass rather than the full congress pass.

RESOLVED, that:

·         The progress of the EDO workstreams be noted.

Report of the Director of Communications.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Director of Communications updating Members of the Corporate Affairs team’s activities in supporting the City Corporation’s strategic political engagement.

The Policy Chair conveyed recent conversations she had underlining how important it was to tell the story of what the Financial and Professional Services do at constituency level for ordinary people.

A Member asked for EDO and the Communications team to put together an email with simple facts on this so that Members could use this in their conversations.

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

Report of the Remembrancer.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the City Remembrancer updating Members on the main elements of the Parliamentary Team’s activity in support of the City Corporation’s political and parliamentary engagement.

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Director of Economic Development proposing that the Economic Development Office change its approach by evolving the work of the Innovation, Inclusion and Growth (IIG) team from corporate social responsibility (a corporate reputation metric), to an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) approach (an investment metric that channels finance to more sustainable business).

RESOLVED, that:

·         It be recommended to the Policy & Resources Committee that the proposed change in approach within the Economic Development Office to ‘Support a thriving economy’ by encouraging growth that is responsible, sustainable and inclusive be approved. This would be via a new programme of work based on an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) methodology, building on our Green Finance work and achieved by reprioritising current resource.

·         It be noted that any staffing or HR implications of the proposed change in approach would be brought to the Establishment Committee as soon as possible.

Report of the Director of Communications.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Director of Communications updating Members on the progress of the website project, specifically to establish progress to date.

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

A question was raised as follows -

Media Training for Chairmen

A question was raised on behalf of the Chairman of Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park Committee requested the Sub Committee to agree that media training should be provided to Members of Committee. Members commended the way that the Chairman of the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queens Park had handled the media during the debate regarding Harry’s Land.

The Director of Communications confirmed that his team would be happy to arrange media training for Chairmen and they could also speak to the Director himself if helpful.

Members discussed that media training should be delivered on a needs basis and that the main spokesperson for media enquiries should be the Chair of Policy and Resources.

RESOLVED, that:

·         Media training be provided to Chairmen on a needs basis, bearing in mind that the primary spokesperson for media enquiries is the Chair of Policy and Resources.

The following items of urgent business were raised –

City of London Corporation participation at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos

Members received a report of the Director of Economic Development concerning the Policy Chair and Lord Mayor’s attendance at the 49^th World Economc Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

RESOLVED, that:

·         The report be noted.

MOTION - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

Questions were raised in respect of the following –

Pride Flag Raising Hospitality

A Member raised a question concerning the recent decision of the Hospitality Working Party to reduce the proposed hospitality around the Pride Flag Raising event and wanted to understand how this decision had been reached.

Early evening reception to mark the transfer of the ‘AIDS since the 80s’ archive to the London Metropolitan Archives

A Member asked the Remembrancer for more detail concerning Hospitality Working Party’s decision to limit the hospitality for an early evening reception to mark the transfer of the ‘AIDS since the 80s’ archive to the London Metropolitan Archives.

There were no items of urgent business.