Agenda item - Monitoring Officer's Report

Agenda item

Monitoring Officer's Report

[To receive a report from the Monitoring Officer on any matters of relevance to the Committee.]

 

Minutes:

The Senior Solicitor presented the Monitoring Officer’s report in her absence.  The Committee noted the comments of the Monitoring Officer’s (MO’s) report and the following issues were raised during the consideration of this:

 

(i)                 Member Investigations and Associated Matters

The Senior Solicitor informed the Committee that paragraph 3.2 of the report should refer to a single complaint against one Alvechurch Parish Councillor and not two Alvechurch Parish Councillors as stated.

 

The Senior Solicitor advised that the final determination hearing for the complaints against the Members of the Labour Group arising from the meetings of Full Council on 29th July 2009 and 20th January 2010 was due to take place in May 2011.

 

(ii)        Local Assessment Statistics

The Senior Solicitor informed the Committee that in advance of the winding up of Standards for England the Council had been advised in June 2010 that it was no longer required to submit local assessment statistics.  Officers had initially intended to continue to provide the statistics for the Committee.  However, compiling the information was time consuming and the Monitoring Officer wanted to hear Members’ views on the issue before making a decision about whether officers should continue to provide the statistics to the Standards Committee.

 

Following further discussion the Committee agreed they should receive information that is useful and necessary.  Data should include information on timescales, how long it had taken for a complaint to be processed and progressed through the Standards Committee.  Officers were tasked to look at producing and compiling relevant 6 monthly and yearly data to be presented to the Committee.

 

It was agreed that the Ethical Standards Officer would consult separately with Members on precisely which statistical data should be provided to the Committee in the future, and that the relevant data would be incorporated into the upcoming joint Annual Report for 2009/2010 and 2010/2011.

 

(iii)       Annual Report

The Senior Solicitor informed the Committee that similarly, the Monitoring Officer wanted to canvass the views of the Committee regards producing an Annual Report.  Due to the pressure of work caused by the July 2009 / January 2010 investigation, it had not been possible for officers to complete an Annual Report for the previous municipal year.  The Committee agreed that a single report covering the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 municipal years be produced and a draft copy be made available to the Committee during July 2011, which would include the statistical data referred to under point (ii) above.

 

(iv)       Member Training

Members were informed of the timetable of events for the Modern Councillor Programme 2011/2012 and the separate briefing session on ‘Ethical Standards and the Code of Conduct’ as follows:

 

§         Mandatory Training Session, Introduction to the operation of the Standards Committee, Wednesday 8th June 2011 at 5:00pm    

 

§         Ethical Standards and the Code of Practice, Monday 26th September 2011 at 6:00pm.  This session to be mandatory for all Members of the Committee and would also be opened up to any district or parish councillors and parish clerks/executive officers who wished to attend.

 

(v)        Parish Council Matters

The Senior Solicitor updated the Committee on the Monitoring Officer Liaison Meetings (MOLMs).  The second meeting had been well attended and officers had provided an update on the 2011 parish council elections and proposed changes to the current standards regime under the Localism Bill.

 

Parish clerks/executive officers had been advised on the Council’s intention, following the 2011 elections, to establish a database of all parish councillors, both elected and co-opted.  Officers also reiterated that all parish councillors (save non-voting co-optees to whom the Code of Conduct did not apply), including those who were re-elected to office, needed to complete a new Register of Members’ Interest form within 28 days of their election or appointment to office.

 

The Ethical Standards Officer informed the Committee that parish council clerks/executive officers had been requested to submit a copy of their parish councils’ Code of Conduct to the Monitoring Officer and that an item detailing these requirements had been included on the agenda for the Parish Councils’ Forum held on 21st March 2011.

 

RESOLVED:

(a)               that the report be noted; and

(b)               that any action points detailed in the preamble above be acted upon and reported back to the Committee as appropriate.

Supporting documents:

 

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