It was noted that apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Sams.

RESOLVED:  That Councillor Mrs Hinder be elected as Chairman of the Panel for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2009/10.

RESOLVED:  That Mrs Phillips be elected as Vice-Chairman of the Panel for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2009/10.

Councillor Mrs Hinder stated that she was acquainted with the parents of one of the applicants, but she did not know the applicant.

Mrs Phillips stated that her husband was a magistrate when one of the applicants was employed as Clerk to the Justices.

Councillor Mortimer stated that although one of the applicants had indicated that she was a member of the Liberal Democrats, he did not know her.

There were no disclosures lobbying.

RESOLVED:  That the items on Part II of the agenda be taken in private as proposed.

The Panel considered a report by the Democratic Services Manager concerning the appointment of a fourth Independent Member to serve on the Standards Committee and the possible reappointment of Mr Mike Powis as an Independent Member.  It was noted that:-

·  The Standards Committee consisted of six Borough Councillors, three Independent Members and three Parish representatives, all of whom had full voting rights.  The Council had decided to increase the number of Independent Members from three to four in order to create further capacity.  The appointment was advertised originally in an edition of the Kent Messenger earlier in the year.  In terms of the number of applications received, the response to the advertisement was disappointing and the decision was taken to re-advertise the position.  The second advertisement appeared in the Town, East, South and Malling editions of the Downs Mail and coincided with a press release.  In total, eleven applications were received in response to the advertisements.  Following a shortlisting exercise undertaken by the Head of Legal Services in consultation with the Chairman of the Standards Committee, four of the applicants had been invited for interview.

·  The Panel had been convened to consider the applications which had been received from shortlisted candidates and to make a recommendation to the Council regarding the appointment of a fourth Independent Member.  The recommendation of the Panel had to be approved by a majority of the Council to enable the appointment to be made.

·  The term of office of Mr Mike Powis as an Independent Member of the Standards Committee was due to expire on 30 June 2010.  Mr Powis had expressed a willingness to serve a second term if the Council wished to make that decision now to avoid having to re-advertise again in six months’ time.  Mr Powis had completed an application form and had been invited for interview.

The Panel, wishing to consider the information contained in the exempt Appendix to the report of the Democratic Services Manager (the application forms and references) and to interview the shortlisted candidates and Mr Powis in private:-

RESOLVED:  That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business because of the likely disclosure of exempt information for the reason specified having applied the Public Interest Test:-

It was noted that one of the candidates invited for interview had stated that she was unable to attend, but would be available later in December.  The Panel agreed that it wished to interview this candidate and that arrangements should be made to enable it to do so early in the New Year.

Having considered the information contained in the exempt Appendix to the report of the Democratic Services Manager and interviewed three of  the candidates and Mr Powis, the Panel:-

RESOLVED:

That the following recommendation be made to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

6.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.