Meeting documents

Standards Committee
Monday, 30th June, 2008 7.30 pm

Date:
Monday, 30th June, 2008
Time:
7.30pm
Place:
Front Committee Room, Town Hall, Reigate
 

Attendance Details

Present:
Councillors Mrs. F.D.M. Dixon, S.A. Kulka and R.F.C. Wagner.

Mr. R. Bethell Horley Town Council
Mrs. J.A. Cook - Salfords and Sidlow Parish Council

Mrs. J. Paul - Independent Member
Also Present:
Councillor Mrs. R.S. Turner
Min NoDescriptionResolution
Part I
1 CONSENT FOR THE MAYOR TO TAKE THE CHAIR
 The Mayor (Councillor R.C. Newstead) had indicated that he was unable to attend the meeting. In the circumstances and in accordance with Committee Procedure Rules, the election of Chairman was conducted by the Democratic Services representative.
2 ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN
 RESOLVED that Mr. J. Broadbent be elected Chairman of the Committee in absentia for the Municipal Year 2008/09.
3 ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRMAN
 RESOLVED that Mrs. J. Paul be elected Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Municipal Year 2008/09.

(The Vice-Chairman, Mrs. J. Paul - in the Chair)
4 MINUTES
 RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 10th March 2008 be approved as a correct record and signed.
5 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS
 Apology for Absence
Councillor Mrs. J.S. Bray
Mr. J. Broadbent (Chairman)

No substitutes
6 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
 None.
7 CHANGES TO THE HANDLING OF COMPLAINTS MADE UNDER THE MEMBER CODE OF CONDUCT
Minute for Minute Number 7
RECOMMENDED that:
(i) the Standards Committee be authorised to complete the selection of candidates to be Independent Members, interview potential candidates, and make recommendations to the Council for appointment;
(ii) the timetable for the appointment of the new Independent Members, as set out in paragraph 9 of the submitted report be agreed;
(iii) the functions of the Standards Committee be amended and those set out in Annex 1 Part 2 (subject to the deletion of the words "…the effectiveness of…" in item 2.3) be adopted, including the authority set out in recommendation 1 above, and the Monitoring Officer be authorised to amend Article 9 and Part 3 of the Constitution accordingly;
(iv) Sub-Committees be approved for undertaking the local assessment function, to be known as Complaints Assessment Sub-Committees, Complaints Review Sub-Committees and Complaints Hearings Sub-Committees;
(v) the terms of reference for each of those Sub-Committees as set out in Annex 2 be approved and the Monitoring Officer be authorised to amend Article 9 and Part 3 of the Constitution, as well as Rules 2, 3 and 8 to the Committee and Sub-Committee Procedure Rules in the Constitution accordingly; and
(vi) an additional representative from either the Horley Town Council ("the Town Council") or Salfords and Sidlow Parish Council ("the Parish Council") be sought for the reasons set out in paragraph 17 of the submitted report, to be appointed in accordance with the timetable referred to in recommendation 2.

RESOLVED that:

(i) the procedures set out in Annexes 3 to 5 inclusive and the Standards Board for England "Local Assessment of Complaint" Guidance for the assessment of complaints under the Member Code of Conduct be adopted and the Standards Committee be authorised to amend the procedures as necessary in the future;
(ii) the Monitoring Officer be authorised to investigate the possibility of a Joint Standards Committee with other local authorities and submit a further report in due course; and
(iii) the Monitoring Officer be authorised to advertise the new Complaints Procedure, as required by the regulations, and to prepare and publish a Complaints Procedure for the handling of complaints made under the Code.
8 CODE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Minute for Minute Number 8
RESOLVED that the Executive be informed that this Committee approves the Local Code of Corporate Governance without further comment.
9 FUTURE MEETINGS
Minute for Minute Number 9
RESOLVED that the report be noted.
10 ANY OTHER URGENT BUSINESS
 None.
The meeting closed at 8.45 p.m.

Minute

Min NoMinute
7The Committee noted that in March 2008 the Standards Committee and the Executive had received reports on the intended changes to the way in which complaints made under the Member Code of Conduct should be handled in the future.

At that time, the Government had not finalised the procedures to be followed and the reports were based on the draft Regulations then available. Subsequently, the Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008 took effect on 8th May 2008. The current report, which would also be considered by the Executive on 10th July 2008, updated Members on the requirements of the regulations, the revised timetable for the implementation of the required constitutional changes and made a number of recommendations accordingly.

The report briefly outlined the relevant statutory powers, and gave details concerning the timetable and procedure for the appointment of Independent Members, the constitutional changes required and proposed changes to processes and procedures in the light of receipt of the Regulations. Having regard to the Regulations as published, it was reported that paragraphs 22 and 23 of the report were no longer required. The report also referred to the legal and financial implications, the consultation undertaken, and the relevant policy framework.

The report also contained a number of annexes that gave further detail on existing and proposed functions of the Standards Committee, the terms of reference of Standards Sub-Committees, the procedure for dealing with complaints and reviewing decisions taken by the Sub-Committees, and the conduct of assessment and review proceedings. In addition, a further annexe was circulated at the meeting which separately set out the proposed functions of the Standards Committee rather than show them in comparison to the existing functions.

Particular discussion took place regarding the wording and extent of the proposed advertisements for additional independent members, and the training of members with specific emphasis on the effectiveness of such training. A Member referred to proposed function 2.3 in Annex 1 and suggested that the words "… the effectiveness of..." should be deleted so that it would read "To monitor the training provided to members and recommend appropriate changes to the member training and induction programmes."

Finally it was noted that in Recommendation 1, the reference for the appointment of Independent Members need not refer to the Executive Member for Personnel and Technology, as Council on 26th June 2008 had agreed that he should be a full Member of the Standards Committee. As Recommendation 1 stood to be determined by the Executive, the Committee agreed that this should be brought to its attention.

8The Committee considered a report on a proposed Code of Corporate Governance for the Authority against which the Council's performance could be monitored and reported. It was noted that the Code would form part of the best practice requirements of the Use of Resources Assessment.
The report had been submitted to the Executive on 27th March 2008 who had approved the Local Code of Corporate Governance for consultation with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Standards Committee. A copy of the proposed Local Code was appended to the submitted report for consideration.

Further details of previous methods of assessment under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and proposed procedures under the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) were outlined by the Monitoring Officer at the meeting, together with an explanation of the new evidence based approach to the assessment.
9It was noted that meetings of the Committee were currently scheduled for:

22nd September 2008
3rd November 2008
26th January 2009
9th March 2009

It was also suggested that there might be a need to include an additional meeting for the assessment of candidates for extra Independent Members, and a discussion ensued about the process for such interviews.

A Member drew attention to the fact that the 9th March 2009 meeting would coincide with a Conservative Group meeting and suggested that consideration should be given to changing that date. He also suggested that Horley Town Council and Salfords and Sidlow Parish Council should be contacted to ensure that the proposed dates did not coincide with their meetings.