MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL
SELECTION PANEL FOR INDEPENDENT PERSONS ON THE STANDARDS COMMITTEE
REPORT of the meeting held on 6 January 2010
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Present: |
Councillor Mrs Hinder (Chairman) and Councillor Mortimer |
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Also Present:
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Mrs D Phillips (Co-opted Independent Member)
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Apologies |
Councillor Sams |
Standards Committee - Appointment of Independent Member
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:-
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Head of Schedule 12A and Brief Description |
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Exempt Appendix to the Report of the Democratic Services Manager
Interview for the Appointment of Independent Member
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1 - Individual.
1 - Individual.
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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 agreed to make the following recommendation to the Council:-
RECOMMENDED:
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.