Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Executive Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs which set out the proposed election campaign.

In the discussion the following points were made:

·       Over 6,000 workplaces could nominate voters. This presented an infrastructure challenge and work was taking place on business engagement.

·       There were over 250 businesses with over 200 staff who were not registered to vote and many of those who were registered, did not register their full allocation of voters.

·       Members could help with engagement in their wards and at ward events. Members could also use their networks and notify Officers of the details of those they were aware were not registered, with Members being given the name of an Officer they could contact. Members could also approach institutions in their wards asking them to hold hustings after the close of nominations. As an administrator of the election, the Corporation was unable to arrange hustings directly.

·       It was important that concierges and property managers were notified that an election would be taking place and election activities of candidates should be allowed.

·       The Lighthouse Project was welcomed. A Member requested a timeline and an Officer stated that a written response would be provided.

·       Businesses could be given clearer information on how to request postal votes, encourage them to provide the email addresses of staff so information could be sent to them.

·       It was suggested that campaigns should not need to be funded from the Policy Initiatives Fund (PIF) or the committee contingency as election engagement was core.

·       Engaging communications managers was critical and this had been taking place through the City Belonging Project.

·       The City Belonging Project and Destination City provided soft touch introductions and further engagement could then take place regarding elections.

·       Some community-based events could help engage those who were hard to reach.

RESOLVED, that Members

1.        Endorse the proposed campaign plan as set out in the Officer report in relation to meeting its engagement objectives; and

2.        Request that Officers look into whether funding should be BAU funding rather than from the Policy Initiatives Fund (PIF) or the Policy and Resources Committee’s Contingency.