Issue - meetings

To consider the motion referred by Council.

The Committee considered the following motion which had been proposed by Councillor Arthur Moran and seconded by Councillor David Brickhill at the Council meeting on 19^th July 2012 and referred to the Committee for consideration:

“That all motions that are referred by Council to a Committee or Cabinet must be put on the agenda of the next meeting of that body or brought back to the next Council meeting for vote on a final decision.”

The motion had provided an opportunity for the Committee to consider more fully the provisions relating to Notices of Motion to see where improvements to the procedure could be made. Some of the existing provisions were in need of modernisation to reflect contemporary usage and methods of electronic communication. In addition, some inconsistencies of approach had been identified.

RESOLVED

That having considered the motion and having reviewed more fully the provisions relating to notices of motion as set out in the Constitution, the Committee recommends to Council that

(1)  the Democratic and Registration Services Manager be a nominated recipient of notices of motion (in addition to the Monitoring Officer) in order to enable Members to lodge notices of motion when the Monitoring Officer is not available;

(2)  Members should be permitted to submit notices of motion by email, and a hard copy signature of the Members in question should not be a requirement of the process;

(3)  the wording of the rules should be amended to make it clear that the full text of the notice of motion would be reproduced in the agenda for the Council meeting;

(4)  a notice of motion should be permitted to be withdrawn:

(a)  prior to the Council meeting if an indication to this effect is given in writing to at least one of the above-named officers by the member who submitted the notice; or

(b)  at the Council meeting if oral notice to this effect is given by the member who submitted the notice, provided that the motion has not already been moved and seconded;

(5)  there should be no distinction in the rules between executive and non-executive functions, there being just one rule which simply requires the motion in question to be referred to the relevant decision-making body, which will be announced at Council by the Mayor;

(6)  each motion should then be referred to the relevant decision-making body for determination, without the need for any reference back to Council except where:

(a)  arising from consideration of the motion, the Constitution Committee recommends to the Council a change to the Constitution; or

(b)  there is some other legal or Constitutional requirement for the matter to be referred back to Council;

(7)  following the moving and seconding of the motion in question, the mover and seconder having been given the opportunity to speak, the motion shall stand referred without debate to the appropriate decision-making body and the proposer and seconder shall have the right to speak at the meeting of the body to which the motion is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32