Agenda item

Agenda item

Review of the Constitution

A report of the Monitoring Officer providing a briefing about the annual review of the Council’s Constitution and those parts of the Constitution (including the Members’ Code of Conduct) that relate to the roles of the Committee.

 

Minutes:

Considered a report of the Monitoring Officer providing the Committee with a briefing about the annual review of the Council’s Constitution and those parts of the Constitution that relate to the roles of the Committee (item 6 on the agenda with the minutes).  The Democratic Services Manager stated there was an additional matter for the Committee to consider relating to training requirements for members who sat on Audit, Licensing and Personnel Committees.

 

In considering whether to remove point (g) in section 2 of the Monitoring Officer Protocol in Chapter 23 of the Constitution, Members of the Committee were concerned that it could inhibit officers from raising concerns, through fear of intimidation or harassment if the only option was to make a complaint in writing.  Members who sat on the recent Panel hearing relating to concerns raised about a Borough Councillor stated that it had been perceived as a weakness of the process that the concerns had not been raised as a formal complaint and considered it had limited its ability to determine the matter.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.         that the Committee notes the report and the content of the current sections of the Constitution relating to member conduct and the handling of member conduct complaints;

 

2.         that section (g) of the Monitoring Officer protocol in Chapter 23 of the constitution be deleted as part of the annual Constitutional review by full Council;

 

3.         that, as part of the annual Constitutional review by full Council, the training requirements for members of the Audit, Licensing and Personnel Committee be amended in the Constitution to state that new members of each committee must attend mandatory training or its equivalent in the current Council term to be eligible.  Also, with respect to Audit and Personnel Committee members, other councillors are allowed to substitute for members of the relevant committee who are absent using procedures set out in the Committee Procedures but in order to be eligible to participate in meetings the member must have attended the mandatory training, or its equivalent, in the current Council term.

 

Reasons

 

1.         To enable the Committee’s views to form part of the annual review of the Council’s Constitution.

 

2.         The Committee considered that measures were already in place elsewhere in the Constitution which would safeguard officers in relation to members and noted that paragraph 27 of the Member:Officer Protocol in Chapter 22 stated:

 

If an officer had cause to complain about the conduct of a member they may make a complaint to the Monitoring Officer if they consider that the conduct involves a breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct. If an Officer considers that the conduct does not involve a breach of the Code of Conduct but is in breach of this Protocol or other Council codes and protocols, they should make their complaint, preferably in writing, to the Monitoring Officer. The Monitoring Officer will deal with the complaint in accordance with the procedure for non-Code of Conduct complaints in Part 4 of the Constitution.  In both cases officers should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer.

 

3.         Members considered it prudent to strengthen the training requirements for these committees to ensure members were up to date with the relevant and latest rules and regulations.

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