Agenda item

To consider a report on the document: ‘A Member-led Council: Developing Effective Member and Officer Relations’.

Brian Reed, Head of Democratic Services and Governance attended the meeting to present the item on the Member-Led Council. He advised the Committee that the report had been to the Member Technology and Development Panel, Constitution Committee, Group Leaders, and had been published to all employees through Team Voice.

Prior to the meeting, Councillor S Corcoran had advised Brian that he had not endorsed the document or any part of it and had several questions that related to the Member-Led report.  The Committee agreed to hear these points and make comment as necessary.

·         Principle 8 vii: specifically: Members must not ”shop-around” for advice, seeking to obtain advice which they may prefer from certain officers, or by seeking a secondary opinion once formal advice has been provided.

The Committee agreed with the sentiment of this principle and noted that Members who take decisions should take into account officer advice.  However, it was noted that sometimes Members struggled to find who the correct contact should be especially where there had been significant changes to teams.  Brian advised he would speak to the Member Panel to investigate the possibility of an organisation chart that included mobile phone numbers. 

There was some general discussion about the expected time scales from officers after a Member has emailed a particular enquiry.  Experience suggested that often officers did not reply to Members or acknowledge the original email.  It was also noted that officers could delegate through to other officers and the Member was not kept in the loop.  Brian agreed to feed this information back to the Member Panel that was being set up to deal with this.

·         Principle 10 specifically: Whilst officers will treat all members in an even-handed, appropriate manner, members must appreciate that officer resource must be provided to assist the Administration to administer, not to assist the opposition to oppose.

Councillor Corcoran advised the phrase ‘not to assist the opposition to oppose’ was misleading particularly in the context of scrutiny where the remit was to hold the Executive to account.  Brian advised a similar comment had been raised at the Constitution Committee.

The Committee had some discussion about the task for the Member Panel, in identifying many options and that nothing was a foregone conclusion.  The Committee recognised this was an open and transparent process and therefore it was essential to look at as many options as possible. 

The Committee discussed whether they could have sight of future reports complete with tracked changes to show the comments made by previous Committees to avoid duplication of discussion and comments.

The Committee asked for clarification on the last paragraph of Principle 10:

·         Officers must also support those members of Council who do not have “special responsibilities”.  They are nevertheless equal members of Council and have a right to be appropriately supported.

Brian advised this referred to Members with Office such as the Leader or Mayor but he would feed the comment back for expansion in the document.

Finally the Committee asked that any acronyms be avoided or explained where possible to make for an easier reading experience.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That Brian Reed be thanked for his attendance and presentation;

(b)  That Brian Reed be asked to:

-investigate the possibility of obtaining an organisation chart for Members to show officer area of responsibility including mobile phone contact;

-feed the experiences relating to email reply correspondence to Members by officer back to the Member Panel to identify a clear communication policy;

-feed in that the view of this Committee that the primary task for the Member Panel was to look at as many options as needed, and that nothing should be a foregone conclusion.

-feed in comments to expand the final paragraph of Principle 10 to provide further clarity around the phrase “special responsibilities”;

- feed in comments to maintain a Plain English approach to language and avoid acronyms, or explain them where possible;

(c)  That the Committee support the approach set out in the document: Cheshire East - A Member-led Council: Developing effective Member and officer relations; and endorse its importance as a supplement to the Council’s Member/ Officer Relations Protocol.