Minutes:
Councillor M S Heard asked the Leader of the Council if she could explain the decision for Maldon Police to be sited in the Council Offices and why the decision had not been made open by the Council. In response, the Leader of the Council advised that the Finance and Corporate Services Committee had responsibility for the management of assets where this matter had been discussed for a period of time. She also outlined the timeline from between when the Council was notified to when the Police publically reported the move and advised the Council of the benefits from the impending move.
Councillor Heard raised a further question regarding the proposed income to the Council and at this time declared a non-pecuniary interest as Essex Police employed him. The Leader of the Council advised that the amount of rent was commercially sensitive but had been included as proposed income when discussed at recent Member budget seminars.
Councillor A S Fluker raised a question regarding commercial rent agreed by the Valuation Office and the rent being charged to Essex Police. He proposed that the Leader consider looking into this and consider asking the Finance and Corporate Services Committee to decide whether the Council wished to proceed. The Chairman advised that there would not be any further debate on this matter.
Councillor Rev. A E J Shrimpton referred to Minute 675 of 19 December 2014 and asked the Leader of the Council when the Transformation Board was due to meet. The Leader referred to the Chief Executive who reported that a meeting of the Transformation Board would be organised during the latter part of the third week of January 2017, following the Examination in Public.
Councillor R P F Dewick asked a question to the Leader of the Council regarding the recent loss of Directors and whether Council processes could be improved to assist with recruitment into such roles. In response, the Leader of the Council advised following successful recruitment some matters were beyond the Council’s control. The Leader also referred to the Peer Review undertaken by the Local Government Association (LGA) in 2013 and advised that the Council was due for a review of this review in February 2017. Members would, in due course, have the opportunity to propose topics to form part of the scope of that re-review prior to February 2017.
Councillor M F L Durham posed a question to the Leader regarding the LGA Review referring to proposals raised in a recent meeting and asking if she supported these proposals. In response, the Leader advised that in respect of the scope of the review she had asked the LGA to consider certain areas relating to governance, financial control and internal communication.
Councillor A T Cain commented that the scope should also include individual interviews between the LGA and Members and asked who had invited the LGA. The Leader provided detail in response to this question.
In response to a question from Councillor Mrs P A Channer regarding Members’ input into the areas for the LGA to consider, the Leader explained that once the first outline scope had been received from the LGA this would be circulated to Members. If a Member had something they wished to discuss they could raise that matter but she hoped that the scope would be sufficiently flexible to allow any such matters to be discussed. The Leader of the Council requested that Committee Services circulate a copy of the 2013 Peer Review to all Members.