Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk asking Members to consider their terms of reference and that of their sub committees ahead of submission of the White Paper to the Court of Common Council on 25 April 2019 as well as the frequency of future meetings.

The Chairman reminded Members that the Committees existing terms of reference had last been approved by the Court of Common Council in July 2018 to reflect the outcome of the review of Standards framework. This involved, in the main, the removal of the complaints appeal function.

The Chairman went on to highlight that one further drafting correction was proposed to paragraph (e) of the Dispensations Sub Committee. This paragraph would now read that each meeting would be chaired “by either the Chairman or one of the two Deputy Chairmen elected annually by the Standards Committee…”. It was the intention that the revised terms of reference for this sub committee come into effect from the implementation of the new dispensations policy and guidance.

The Committee went on to discuss their frequency of meetings. The meetings currently took place three times per annum, on a Friday morning with an 11am start time. The Chairman questioned whether there was a desire amongst members of the Committee to meet more frequently in future. The Deputy Chairman suggested a fourth meeting each year referring to the fact that all recent meetings of this Committee had lasted for longer than two hours which was not always productive given that some Members needed to leave the meeting at this point.

A Co-opted Member stated that the number of meetings associated with this Committee had increased significantly in recent years. He added that an additional meeting of the grand Committee each year would therefore be inconvenient, particularly for Co-opted Members, some of whom were in full time employment not necessarily based close to Guildhall.

Another Co-opted Member reflected on the fact that the Committee had had a number of contentious issues to deal with in recent months which had, unavoidably, impacted upon the length and number of meetings required. He agreed that, going forward, three meetings per annum were sufficient.

A Member suggested that a better approach would be for the Chairman to introduce some flexibility in terms of start time should there be a particularly long agenda for any future meeting.

RESOLVED – That:

a)    The terms of reference of the Committee be approved for submission to the Court of Common Council , as set out at Appendix 1;

b)    Members endorse the drafting correction to paragraph (e) of the Dispensations Sub (Standards) Committee terms of reference – the new terms of reference to come in to force at the implementation of the new dispensations policy and guidance;

c)    Members approve the frequency of the Committee’s meetings remain at 3 per annum; and

d)    Members note the scheduled meeting dates for the remainder of 2019 and for 2020.