Issue - meetings

To consider proposed interim amendments to the Council’s Officer Delegation Scheme.

The Committee considered proposed interim amendments to the Council’s Officer Delegation Scheme.

The officer delegation scheme had been revised to reflect the most recent changes to the senior management structure.

Advice was regularly sought from the Borough Solicitor on what further approvals if any were required when implementing elected member decisions. This was particularly relevant when dealing with processes that required statutory procedures to be followed or consultation exercises to be undertaken. The Officer Delegation Scheme had therefore been revised at paragraph 5.2 to empower officers to deal with statutory procedures or undertake consultation exercises on the basis that in doing so they must consult appropriate members.

A separate exercise had been undertaken by the Assets Team in consultation with relevant Portfolio holders to clarify responsibility for the control and management of the Council’s Assets so that day-to-day operational decisions were delegated in future to the Strategic Director (Places and Organisational Capacity).

Only interim changes shown underlined were being proposed to reflect the fact that the Officer Delegation Scheme would need to be consistent with the provisions in the Finance and Contract Procedure Rules and any changes arising from the management review of the third, fourth and fifth tiers being undertaken by the Chief Executive. Accordingly, a further report on the Officer Delegation Scheme would be needed to align the Scheme to any revisions to the Finance and Contract Procedure Rules and the outcome of the next phase of the senior management structure review.

The Officer Scheme of Delegation, showing proposed amendments highlighted, was set out in the Appendix to the report.

In considering the revised management responsibilities, Members asked where responsibility now lay for Crime Reduction, which had previously been a responsibility of the Chief Executive. Officers undertook to seek clarification and advise Members accordingly.

In considering the proposed delegation of asset management functions to Officers, Members asked about the implications for the operational management of premises by Services and whether specific service level agreements would need to be entered into with relevant service managers.

RESOLVED

That

(1)   the interim amendments to the Officer Delegation Scheme(as set out in the Appendix to the report) be recommended to Council for approval, subject to the amendment of paragraph 5.2 to refer to ‘non-statutory statistically valid consultations’, and the Constitution be amended accordingly;

(2)   a presentation on the Corporate Landlord Function should be made to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee; and

(3)   a further report on the Officer Delegation Scheme be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee when the senior management review has been completed.