Agenda Item
4___
CONSTITUTION WORKING PARTY
Minutes of a meeting of the Constitution Working Party held on 9 March 2012 in
Meeting Room 2, Council Offices, Holt Road, Cromer at 3.00 pm.
Members Present:
Working Party:
Officers in
Attendance:
1
Ms V R Gay, Mr K E Johnson, Mrs A M Moore and Mrs H
Thompson.
The Monitoring Officer and the Democratic Services Team Leader.
ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN
It was proposed by Ms V R Gay, seconded by Mrs A M Moore and
RESOLVED
to elect Mrs H Thompson to the Chair.
2
TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received from Mrs A M Fitch-Tillett.
3
ITEMS OF URGENT BUSINESS
None
4
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
None
5
THE CONSTITUTION
Terms of reference
Terms of Reference were circulated to Members. The Terms of Reference set the
parameters within which the Working Party would operate and would be formally
signed off at the next meeting and any comments on them should be made to the
Democratic Services Team Leader before then. The Constitution Working Party
would need to stand for at least the coming year because there were some sections
which could not be revised immediately, including those things which would be
impacted by the senior management review. The Working Party reported to Full
Council.
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Methodology
It was proposed to go through each chapter and identify those sections that required
further work by officers. Any issues identified outside the meeting should be notified
to the Monitoring Officer or the Democratic Services Team Leader. The notes from
today’s meeting would be circulated to Members in case anything had been missed.
The immediate revisions needed to be ready by the end of March if they were to be
received by Full Council on 18 April 2012.
The revised Constitution would be produced in loose-leaf form with an amendable
PDF version for iPad and website users.
Members discussed the documents:
Pagination and font
Concern was expressed that the present numbering system was confusing to some
Members but it was recognised that the pagination had to take future revisions into
account. It was suggested that a session on using the Constitution could be
arranged for Members. At the same time they could be made aware of changes.
It was noted that there was an inconsistency in the font used throughout the
document.
Chapter 1: Introduction and Basic Principles
Part 5, Council Structure, 5.2, page 1.3: the principle of two Members comprising a
political group was questioned, especially if the individuals concerned were not in the
same political party. This had an impact on Opposition Business. The Monitoring
Officer would refer to legislation.
Chapter 2, Full Council
a) Part 3, Ordinary Meetings, Opposition Business, 3.8 (b), page 2.7: it needed to
be clarified that notice should be given within 14 working, not calendar days. It
should also be reflected that the Opposition Business was presented by a
nominated representative of the political group on their behalf and not by an
individual opposition Member. 14 working days was considered a significantly
long period of time and this should be re-visited.
b) Part 12, Petitions, page 2.12: this section needed to be amplified to be more
specific about how petitions and questions were dealt with.
c) Part 18, Voting, Recorded Vote, 18.6, page 2.22: Members recommended that
one Member, not five, should be eligible to demand a recorded vote.
d) Part 20, Members’ Conduct, 20.3, Telephones and electronic equipment, page
2.23: there had been developments in the use of electronic equipment at
meetings since this section was written. More Members were using electronic
equipment at meetings, but these devices should be turned to silent mode.
Central government was encouraging greater transparency and this included
public recording of meetings. However, if someone was recording it would be
courteous to inform Members. Some authorities had produced supporting policy
documents for meeting management and it was something which NNDC needed
to consider.
e) Part 23, Appointment of Members to Committees, Substitution, page 2.25: an
addition should be made to explain that a substitute was independent and was
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not obliged to vote according to the instructions of the person they were
substituting for.
Chapter 3, The Executive
a) Part 1, The Cabinet, 4 (b) and 5(b): these sections would have to be removed
when the new Standards regime came into being.
b) Part 3, Functions which the Leader has allocated to the Cabinet, Cabinet
Committees or Individual Cabinet Members, page 3.5: the note in italics should
be removed because it was out of date.
c) Part 3, Individual Cabinet Members, 3.1, page 3.6: the note in italics should be
removed because it was out of date.
d) Part 3, Individual Cabinet Members, 3.2, page 3.6: the Portfolio responsibilities
didn’t reflect the current structure. This served no real purpose and, therefore,
this section should be removed.
Chapter 4, Overview and Scrutiny
An Overview and Task Group was doing work which could impact on this chapter. It
would be better to wait for their final report before making any amendments.
Chapter 5, Committees
a) Part 2, Committee Procedure Rules, 5. Voting, 5.5 Recorded vote and 5.6
Recording of Votes at the Development Committee, page 5.6: there was a lack of
consistency with 18, Voting, Recorded Vote, 18.6, page 2.22. The measure in 5.6
should apply to all committees, not just the Development Committee.
b) Part 5, The Audit Committee: the Terms of Reference needed to be amended in
line with CIPFA guidance. The amendments must include changing “approve” to
“review the annual statement of accounts”.
Chapter 6, Officers
a) This Chapter could not be completely revised until the senior management restructure was complete. This also applied to the list of delegated responsibilities.
The legal functions should be linked to the delegated responsibilities.
b) 6. Conditional and Default Delegation, 6.2, Determination of Planning and Listed
Building Applications, page 6.9: a question was asked about delegation to Local
Members. It was suggested that the Head of Planning and Building Control or the
Planning Legal Manager could be invited to the next meeting to address this.
c) Tenders, page 6.11: there was inconsistency between this section and the
Contract Procedure Rules in Chapter 9.
d) 6.11, Grants, page 6.13: the Monitoring Officer would further investigate this
section.
e) Consideration should be given to how the Big Society Fund should be included in
this section.
f) The statutes and responsibilities of proper officers needed updating after the
management structure was completed.
Chapter 7, Ethical Governance
a) The sections on Standards would have to be revised when the new Standards
regime was introduced.
b) Part 3. Employee Code of Conduct, p.7.14: Members considered this should be
reviewed by JSCC. The Protocol for Member/Officer Relations should also be
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reviewed by JSCC. The timing of this would be subject to the programme of work
currently being undertaken by JSCC.
c) 12. Member Training, p.7.25: this section needed to be augmented.
Chapter 8, Access to Information Procedure Rules
In response to a Member’s question the Democratic Services Team Leader said that
archived minutes dating back to the formation of NNDC in 1974 were held in the
strong room. The legal requirement was to keep minutes for 6 years.
Chapter 9, Rules, Codes and Protocols
a) Part 1, Financial Regulations: the Finance team would be asked to review this
document and report back to the Working Party in due course.
b) Pages 9.2 and 9.3 included committee sections which would need to be revised
to achieve consistency with earlier sections.
Chapter 10, Officer Employment Procedure Rules
a) 1. Responsibility for the Discharge of Employment Functions, page 10.1: this
section contained incorrect numbering.
b) This chapter should be referred to the Organisational Development Manager and
the Legal Section for review.
Chapter 11, Members’ Allowances
a) This chapter should incorporate the changes made by the Independent
Remuneration Panel in January and agreed by Full Council on 22 February 2012.
b) Reference should be made to what the allowance was for. This information could
be obtained from the report which went to the Independent Remuneration Panel.
c) 13. Allowances while Suspended from Council Duties, page 11.5: this section
would need to be deleted when the new Standards regime came into being.
Chapter 12, Partnership Arrangements and Outside Bodies
a) Reference to area partnerships would need to be removed.
b) Outside Bodies: although the list tended to be out-of-date almost as soon as it
was published, it should be published regularly so that the public could see the
wide spectrum of bodies on which there was councillor representation.
c) In light of recent complaints to the Standards Committee an addition should be
made to explain that Councillors should declare membership of Outside Bodies in
their Register of Interests, subject to any changes arising from the Localism Act
2011.
d) Members considered that it was unnecessary to include the Organisational
Management Structure in the Constitution. Before removing it, the Monitoring
Officer would check whether or not it was a legal requirement.
e) Shadow spokespersons: the Monitoring Officer advised that most councils didn’t
include shadows in their constitutions. This was an issue for discussion outside
the meeting.
f) Page 3, 7. Disciplinary Action (c): a footnote should be added to provide an
explanation for “a designated independent person”.
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6
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Possible dates for a following meeting would be circulated to Members. Any issues
for consideration at this meeting should be emailed to the Monitoring Officer or
Democratic Services Team Leader.
The meeting closed at 4.50 pm
Chairman
Constitution Working Party
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9 March 2012