Agenda item

REPORT OF THE MONITORING OFFICER (E1)

To receive a report from the Assistant Director of Law, Democracy and Governance as Monitoring Officer.

Minutes:

The City Council considered the statutory report of the Council’s Monitoring Officer under Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

 

The report referred to the process of appointing chief officers and suggested that some appointments had taken place without reference to the legislative framework and the Council’s Pay Policy.

 

Tracey Lee (Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service) presented the response together with a draft action plan which had been amended following the Appointments Panel held on 31 March 2014.  The Chief Executive was supported in presenting the response by Denis Cooper one of the country’s leading local government solicitors, who is a Consultant with Eversheds Solicitors.  During his presentation to the Council, Mr Cooper advised that –

 

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the decision of the Monitoring Officer to issue a statutory report was his personal responsibility following consultation and he was entirely responsible for its content; 

 

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following the receipt of a statutory report from its Monitoring Officer the Council had a legal duty to consider the report at a Council meeting and to determine its response;

 

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this response could be acceptance or rejection of the report wholly or partially and include proposals for responsive action on the report;  

 

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since receipt of the report, the Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service had worked with members and senior officers to prepare a response to the report for consideration at this meeting;

 

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this response included some actions by the Appointments Panel;

 

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it was for Council to consider the report, determine its response to the report and act accordingly;

 

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there was no legislative decision or guidance of the requirement to consider the report; 

 

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accordingly, the proposed response and the decisions of this meeting were subject to the local government principles of reasonableness and proportionality and assessment of risk;

 

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the legislation which governed the appointment of Chief Officers was complex;

 

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to the extent that the report highlighted failures of process, adequate steps were proposed or had been taken to deal with those matters; 

 

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the report of the Chief Executive and actions taken by the Appointments Panel and Council subsequent to its receipt, in his view, comprised a reasonable and proportionate response to the matters raised in the Monitoring Officer’s report;

 

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whilst risk of challenge could never be eliminated, in his view, the risk of successful challenge to the decisions of the Council if the recommendations of the Chief Executive were adopted was low;

 

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the Action Plan should therefore be the basis of the Council’s response to the statutory report.

 

The Chief Executive and Denis Cooper responded to questions from members on technical and legal issues.  

 

Councillor Evans (Council Leader) proposed and Councillor Peter Smith (Deputy Leader) seconded the recommendations of the Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service in response to the report of the Monitoring Officer.

 

Cllr Bowyer moved and Councillor Nicholson seconded the following amendment to recommendation (2) -

 

‘A full, independent and external review is undertaken to learn leassons from these matters.’  

 

The meeting adjourned for a short period for the amendment to be printed and circulated.

 

Following a vote, the amendment was not agreed.

 

Councillor Evans summed up on the substantive motion and following a request from ten councillors for a recorded vote, there voted –

 

For the motion (31)

 

Councillors Mrs Aspinall, Bowie, Casey, Coker, Damarell, P. Davey, S Davey, Evans, Fox, Gordon, Jarvis, Lowry, McDonald, Morris, Murphy, Mrs Nelder, Parker, Penberthy, Rennie, Singh, J. Smith, P. Smith, Stevens, J. Taylor, K. Taylor, Tuffin, Tuohy, Vincent, Wheeler, Williams and Wright.

 

Against the motion (0)

 

Abstentions (16)

 

Councillors  Mrs Beer, Bowyer, Mrs Bowyer, Churchill (Vice Chair), Darcy, Foster, Mrs Foster, Jordan, Martin Leaves, Michael Leaves, Sam Leaves, Dr Mahony, Monahan, Nicholson, Mrs Nicholson and Lord Mayor (Chair)

 

The following members were absent (10)

 

Councillors Ball, Mrs Dolan, Drean, Fry, Haydon, James, Ricketts, Dr Salter, Stark and Wigens.  

 

The motion was agreed as follows -

 

(1)

 the Council agrees the actions set out in the action plan (amended following the meeting of the Appointments Panel held on 31 March 2014). This will ensure that the Council corrects any failures in process in a proportionate way, having considered all the risks;   

 

(2)

a full review is undertaken to learn the lessons from these matters.

 

The Lord Mayor thanked Mr Cooper for his advice and attendance at the meeting.

 

(At the conclusion of this item the meeting continued in public.)

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