Agenda item

To consider the report of the Head of Legal & Democratic Services (attached).

The Council was informed that the Governance Working Group had discussed the current procedures for the Mayor or Chairs of committees to exercise a casting vote in the event that a vote was tied. Currently, if a vote was tied the Mayor would be required to exercise a casting vote in favour of the status quo. This was replicated for committee chairs, with the exception of the Chair of Planning Applications Committee.

The Working Group had proposed that the procedure rules were amended to allow the Mayor or Chair to have a free vote when exercising a casting vote. The rules would also be updated to require a further debate and vote, with the casting vote only exercised if after the second vote an equality of votes remained. In addition, guidance would be added to the Constitution for the Mayor or Chair to take into account when exercising a casting vote.

The Council was informed that a Task & Finish Group had been formed to review the Council’s governance arrangements and the principles that had informed the review were noted. One of the central principles was that there should not be any increase to the cost of operating any revised arrangements.

The Working Group had endorsed the Task & Finish Group recommendations not to make a formal change to governance arrangements at this time. Alternatively it was proposing to make changes that met the objectives of the review, within the parameters of the existing executive and scrutiny system, with an emphasis on a need for more pre-decision scrutiny. It was therefore proposed to adopt a framework that reflected the following principles:

·           The Leader is advised to reduce the number of portfolios to six;

·           The Executive reviews the scope of the Executive Working Groups, including potentially aligning them to portfolios; and

·           Executive Working Groups operate more like Task & Finish Groups where appropriate, with the remit to meet in response to items as they arose, rather than as part of a fixed schedule of meetings.

RESOLVED that

(i)     the Council Procedure Rules at Part 4, Section A of the Constitution be updated as set out at Annex A to the agenda report;

(ii)   the Committees, Sub Committees and Other Bodies Procedure Rules at Part 4, Section D of the Constitution be updated as set out at Annex B to the agenda report; and

(iii)  the recommendations to the Leader and Executive concerning the changes to the size of the Executive and the revised approach for Executive Working Groups be noted.