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

The Chairman stated that, at the meeting of the Panel held on 2 December 2009, she had indicated that she was acquainted with the parents of one of the applicants, but she did not know the applicant.  However, she had now realised that the applicant was not the person she had in mind.

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.

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

There were no disclosures of lobbying.

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

RESOLVED:  That the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 December 2009 be approved as a correct record and signed.

The Panel considered a report by the Democratic Services Manager setting out the position with regard to the appointment of a fourth Independent Member to serve on the Standards Committee.  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 2009.  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 short listing exercise undertaken by the Head of Legal Services in consultation with the Chairman of the Standards Committee, four of the applicants were invited for interview on 2 December 2009.  One of the applicants invited for interview indicated that she was unable to attend that day, but would be available later in December.  The Panel, at its meeting on 2 December 2009, 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.  The Panel then proceeded to interview the other three candidates.

·  The Panel had been convened to consider the applications received from the short listed candidates, interview the candidate who was unable to attend on 2 December 2009 and 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 Panel, wishing to consider the information contained in the exempt Appendix to the report of the Democratic Services Manager (the application forms and references), interview the candidate who was unable to attend on 2 December 2009 and formulate a recommendation to the Council 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:-

Having considered the information contained in the exempt Appendix to the report of the Democratic Services Manager and interviewed the candidate who was unable to attend on 2 December 2009, the Panel:-

RESOLVED to RECOMMEND to the COUNCIL:

That Ms Hilary Hunt be appointed as an Independent Member of the Standards Committee for a term of three years with effect from the Annual Meeting of the Council on 19 May 2010.

10.00 a.m. to 11.05 a.m.