Agenda item

To consider the report of the Monitoring Officer (copy enclosed).

The Committee considered the report of the Monitoring Officer on possible revisions to its constitution.

In the light of comments made by Councillor S Nunn at and following the last meeting of the Committee it was considered that there was scope for looking at certain aspects of the Council’s constitutional arrangements so far as they affect the set-up of this Committee.

The constitution of the Committee, details of which were circulated at the meeting, was set out at the head of its terms of reference and general remit.  In particular it provided that

7)         The Chairman of the Committee shall be a Maldon District Councillor appointed at the Annual Meeting of the Council.

8)         There will be one Vice-Chairman who shall be a Maldon District Councillor and shall be elected by the Committee.

The Committee noted that the above matters had occurred within the confines of the statutory annual meeting of the Council, albeit on adjournment to facilitate the holding of special meetings of the committees for this purpose and that in reality that was the first meeting of the Committee.  This conformed to the overall constitutional arrangements of the Council as set out in Procedure Rules.

Councillor S Nunn asked that it be recorded that he believed that the constitution had been breached in that the Chairman of the Committee had not been appointed by the Council at its annual meeting and that the Vice-Chairman had not been elected by the Committee.  He added that the implication of the reference to ‘Joint’ in the name of the Committee was that its members were of equal standing, and recognised the equal importance of Parish and Town Councils in the District.

Discussion ensued with particular reference to the potential involvement of the two Parish/Town Council Members in the chairmanship/vice-chairmanship decisions.

It was proposed by Councillor R G Boyce that in the interests of equality and fairness the two Parish representatives be invited to attend the first meeting of the Joint Standards Committee held at the statutory annual meeting of the Council.  There was no seconder to this proposition.

It was then proposed by Councillor S Nunn and seconded by Councillor Rev A E J Shrimpton that every member of the Committee has equal rights to the election of Chairman and Vice-Chairman and that this is done at the first meeting of the Committee following the statutory annual meeting of the Council.

After some further and brief debate and clarification of the mechanism currently operated Councillor Shrimpton withdrew his seconding the above proposition.

Councillor Nunn then amended his proposition to refer to the same day as the statutory annual meeting of the Council and this was seconded by Councillor Mrs B F Acevedo.  Upon being put to the meeting and a vote taken the proposition was agreed.

RECOMMENDED that the Council agrees that the constitution of the Committee be revised to enable all its members to be party to the election of Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Committee and that this takes place on the same day as the statutory annual meeting of the Council.