MAIDSTONE BOROUGH
COUNCIL
COUNCIL
22 APRIL 2015
REPORT OF THE COUNCILLOR
WORKING GROUP
Report prepared by Angela
Woodhouse
1. NEW
CONSTITUTION FOR MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL
1.1
Issue
for Decision
1.1.1 On 10 December 2014
full Council agreed to change the system of governance of Maidstone Borough
Council from Cabinet Governance to Committee Governance. The Council is unable
to pass any further resolution to change the Council's governance arrangements
for five years. The Council now needs to implement the change, which will take
effect at the Annual Meeting of the Council on 23 May 2015.
1.1.2 In order to
facilitate that change a new Constitution has been developed, in conjunction
with a working group of Councillors. There have also been a number of
Councillor training sessions to discuss the implications of operating a new
Committee Governance system and the content of the new Constitution.
The principal changes are intended to
secure increased Councillor participation; more effective and efficient
decision making; and improved and increased public involvement. There are a
number of changes in the way that the Council will operate, in particular, the
inability to delegate functions to individual Councillors (other than local
matters at Ward level).
1.1.3 All
significant policy decisions (other than those reserved to Council) will be
taken by four new service committees, as follows:
·
Policy
and Resources Committee – which considers the Council's budget and strategic
plan, economic development, corporate matters and has an overarching role
should disputes or differences arise between Committees;
·
Strategic
Planning, Sustainability and Transport Committee – covers the Local
Plan, development management policies and transport matters including parking
and park and ride;
·
Communities,
Housing and Environment Committee – considers housing strategy, waste and
recycling strategy (it is also the Council's crime and disorder committee); and
·
Heritage,
Culture and Leisure Committee - dealing with matters relating to the
Council's parks and open spaces, events, the leisure offer and culture and
heritage services.
1.1.4 The draft of the
proposed new Constitution for the Council has been circulated under separate
cover. A summary of the changes is set out below split into high level
structural changes and separately more detailed operational changes.
1.2 RECOMMENDED:
1.2.1 That the new
Constitution for Maidstone Borough Council circulated separately, be adopted to
come into effect from the Annual Meeting of the Council on 23 May 2015.
1.3
SUMMARY
OF CHANGES
1.3.1 High level and
structural changes include the following:
·
A
shorter Constitution, omitting the Articles from the previous Constitution;
·
Style
changes with reference to "Councillors" rather than
"Members" in most places; and "members of the public"
rather than "residents"/"citizens";
·
No
references to Cabinet or Executive governance nor Overview and Scrutiny (other
than in relation to crime and disorder or health matters);
·
Creation
of four main service committees that will review policy and operate in a more
open and strategic manner;
·
Merger
of the Audit Committee with Standards in a new Audit, Governance and Standards
Committee; General Purposes becomes the Democracy Committee; and the Member and
Employment Development Panel becomes the Employment Committee (with Councillor
development moving to Democracy) (Licensing and Planning remain largely the
same);
·
The
creation of an Urgency Committee to deal with matters which may need to be
determined between scheduled meetings of Council and Policy and Resources
Committee that are truly urgent and above the level of financial delegation to
Officers. (It is not envisaged that this Committee will meet very frequently,
or at all.) The proposed membership is each of the Leaders of the five largest
political groups represented on the Council from time to time;
·
Description
of the roles and responsibilities of the Chairmen of the new Service Committees
added;
·
No
Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules, since all decisions flow from full
Council through the delegation in the Constitution to Committees,
Sub-Committees and Officers, rather than some decisions being made by Council
and some by the Executive (no dispute resolution provisions are therefore
required);
·
No
"key decisions" nor "forward plan" since these expressions
feature within executive governance arrangements, although there will be a
calendar of meetings available on the Council's website with advance
notification of potential items of business, in due course;
·
A
fuller Summary and Explanation as part 1 of the constitution;
·
All
of the delegations to committees, sub-committees and officers (including proper
officers) are brought together in part 2 of the constitution;
·
All
of the Procedure Rules are together in part 3;
·
All
Codes and Protocols are together in part 4;
·
The
new Members Allowances scheme is to be inserted as part 5 when adopted by the
Council, following consideration of the report of the Independent Remuneration
Panel;
·
The
Management structure chart is included at part 6; and
·
A
new Glossary of terms has been added at the end of the Constitution, to aid
interpretation.
1.3.2 Legislative
references have also been updated to take account of changes in the law,
including some changes that will take effect in early May 2015.
1.3.3 The Constitution
also contains a number of hypertext links and the Summary and Explanation in
particular is written in simple English so that anyone who may deal with the
Council is able to understand the way in which the Council operates and its
procedure rules, codes and protocols.
MORE DETAILED CHANGES
1.3.4 The Summary and Explanation
is now 12 pages long and includes some of the matters that were previously
contained within the Articles (which were over 30 pages in length). There is a
structure chart for the Council's committee structure and this part summarises
the roles and responsibilities of the Mayor, Leader, Chairmen, members of the
public, Statutory Officers, Directors and joint service delivery arrangements
with other Councils.
1.3.5 The next part
contains the responsibility for functions. This part has sought to identify
the delegation of functions from Council to Committees, Sub-Committees and
Officers. There are some financial levels set out in the Appendix to the
Financial Procedure Rules in part 3 that apply to the allocation of functions,
as well as setting out the responsibilities as to who may take decisions. The
main Committee changes are set out above, however, it is also proposed that the
Joint Consultative Committee be reduced in size from 8 Councillors and 8 Trades
Union members to 4 Councillors and 4 Trades Union members (3 UNISON and 1
UNITE).
1.3.6 The main changes in
the rules of procedure include the following:
·
Questions by members of the public to be answered in the
order in which they are received and to last for up to one hour (Committees
will be half an hour); questions from Councillors to be reduced at Council to
half an hour;
·
All public questions will be answered in writing, a copy of
which will appear with the minutes of the meeting and shall be posted with the
reply on the Council's website;
·
Ability for any three Councillors to refer a decision of a
service Committee to Policy and Resources Committee for reconsideration;
likewise any five Councillors would have the ability to refer a decision of Policy
and Resources Committee to full Council for reconsideration. However, should
additional information come to light or other circumstances arise which mean
that the original service committee may be able to take a different decision
(that would resolve matters) then the Chairman of the original Committee on the
request of three Members in writing may call a further meeting of the Committee
to consider the matter again and to resolve the matter in a different way, in
which case the referral falls away.
·
Under the current Constitution Councillors are required to
commit to undertake training within an agreed period for certain Committees
(Planning and Licensing), to ensure that Councillors understand the detailed
rules that govern the decisions made by that particular Committee e.g. material
planning considerations for Planning Committee and for all members of that
Committee annually. This training requirement has been strengthened as the new
constitution states that failure to undertake annual refresher training will
result in the Councillor ceasing to be a member of the committee until the
refresher training has been undertaken.
The Democracy Committee will oversee the provision of this training along with
Induction training.
1.3.7 The financial
procedure rules largely remain the same, although there are suggested changes
in the level of delegation, particularly for virement (increasing from £40,000
to £100,000); the Chief Finance Officer will be authorised to accept tenders or
quotations up to £75,000 (increased from £50,000) in line with previous
decisions of the Council to authorise expenditure up to that level; Chief
Finance Officer virement and supplementary estimates (increase from £25,000 to
£50,000); and minor changes to values in the contracts procedure rules,
increasing £5,000 to £10,000 above which a written risk assessment is required
and £15,000 to £25,000 for something to be included on the Council's contract
register and in relation to which separate files shall be required recording
details of contract awards, waivers and extensions.
1.3.8 The Contract
Procedure Rules now reflect the changes required because of the Public
Contracts Regulations 2015, although most of the detailed rules involved in
purchasing and tendering are included within the Council's Purchasing Guide,
which is also in the process being updated.
1.3.9 The Officer
Employment Procedure Rules have been updated to take account of the legislative
changes introduced by the Local Government Standing Order Regulations 2015
which involve Independent Persons appointed to assist the Monitoring Officer
with member conduct also being involved in disciplinary action against the
three statutory protected officers (Head of Paid Service, Monitoring Officer
and Chief Finance Officer) instead of a procedure which involves a Designated
Independent Person.
1.3.10
The
arrangements for dealing with alleged breaches of the Councillors' Code of
Conduct have been included in the Constitution at 4.2, after the Code. These
arrangements mirror the Kent-wide arrangements. One small amendment is
proposed by the Monitoring Officer (in line with changes proposed at Tunbridge
Wells Borough Council) and that relates to the time within which a complaint
should be received in relation to an alleged breach. The current arrangements
only allow for complaints to be made within three months of the alleged breach.
The three month limit would be removed (currently at 4.2 Annex 1 at 1.4 (f))
and a second example will be added to the current 1.4(j), as follows "the
alleged misconduct took place so long ago that the complaint should not be
pursued". In practice it would be left to the discretion of the
Monitoring Officer in consultation with the Independent Person, to determine
how long ago is too long ago.
1.3.11
Given
that the arrangements also govern complaints relating to Parish Councillors
within the Maidstone Borough, the Monitoring Officer has consulted all Parish
Councils on the proposed change. The majority of Parish Councils that
have responded at the date of this report generally support the removal of the
three month time limit rule but some feel that it would be unfair on
Councillors if there was not a defined deadline. Six or twelve months has
been suggested. These representations have been considered carefully, but
on balance the Monitoring Officer does not recommend replacing the three month
rule with a longer defined time limit, such as six or twelve months. This
is because there may be perfectly valid reasons why it takes longer than this
to report a serious incident of Councillor conduct (e.g. a Police investigation
is ongoing or the conduct is not discovered until later) and it would be very
difficult to try and justify this rule to a member of the public that wished to
complain in these circumstances. There are separate criteria in the existing
arrangements which ensure that complaints will not be accepted about behaviour
which took place so long ago that it would not be practicable or proportionate
to investigate it. The proposed addition to 1.4(j) (which becomes 1.4(i))
strengthens these criteria.
1.3.12
The
Protocol on Councillor and Officer Relations has also been updated and
refreshed with some minor changes including stressing the need for respect
between councillors and officers and ensuring that the protocol is balanced. It
explicitly mentions that correspondence with Councillors should not be shared
with other Councillors without the consent of the Councillor (unless the
Monitoring Officer considers this to be justified in the circumstances of the
case, for example to comply with a legal obligation).
1.3.13
Councillors
are asked to consider the changes proposed to the Council's Constitution and to
adopt the new Constitution with effect from Annual Council in May, subject to
any amendments that may be made at this meeting.
1.3.14
It
is proposed that the Democracy Committee review the operation and effectiveness
of the new Constitution early in 2016, with a view to adopting and implementing
appropriate changes in April/May 2016.