Agenda and draft minutes

The Chief Executive welcomed those present and introduced Philip McCourt of Bevan Brittan LLP.

The draft terms of reference will be provided for consideration at the meeting.

The Assistant Director – Governance and Law circulated the draft terms of reference (appended to these minutes) for approval. Members were invited to give feedback via email prior to the next meeting of the Working Group.

The Assistant Director – Governance and Law outlined the work carried out by the previous Governance working group, and advised that the minutes were available to view on the council’s website.  

Philip McCourt gave a presentation setting out the main considerations when changing governance arrangements.

The presentation set out suggested objectives for the change in governance arrangements, which were:

•       Inclusivity – all elements of the Council should be involved in decision making, able to make their argument and exercise their vote;

•       Transparency – the decision making process should be more open and transparent  to Members and to the public;

•       Dynamism – decision making should be both quick and effective and, when necessary, allow for urgent decision making;

•       Streamlined – responsibilities and accountability should be clear, both within the Council and to the public

•       Accountability – governance should assist good decision making, involving proper and early scrutiny; and

•       Cost effectiveness – arrangements should seek to be agile and neither over burdensome nor costly.

Members indicated that they were broadly in agreement with these objectives.

Members commented on various aspects of the presentation and made points including the following:

·       It was useful to draw on examples of other authorities who had adopted committee governance arrangements, such as Swale.

·       It was important to ensure that the committee structure was the right fit for Folkestone and Hythe.

·       Would a new constitution include decision making arrangements of wholly owned companies?

·       There was no desire to retain a Scrutiny function within the committee system, but each committee should retain the ability to create task and finish groups, enabling ‘deep dives’ on specific topics.

·       It was important to ensure the number of committees aligned with the number of members, to ensure there were enough members on each committee.

·       Decision making within a committee model would not prevent decisions going in the favour of any majority group.

·       Would officers be serving multiple committees?

·       In terms of the arguments for and against a committee system, the negatives were negatable.

·       It was desirable to avoid any double handling where reports needed to be considered by two separate committees.

·       Would the £100k budget cover everything needed to change the governance arrangements of the council, including convening the Independent remuneration panel?

·       Members supported the principle of committee chair’s acting as ‘spokespersons’.

Philip McCourt responded to the issues raised and made points including the following:

·       The terms of reference, and how the council exercised decision making as a share holder in terms of wholly owned companies was publicly available information and would be included within the constitution.

·       It was important to ensure that decisions were not pre-determined and were made based on the evidence presented to that committee.

·       Resources were a key consideration in the change in governance arrangements. Officer training was also vital, not just in terms of the committee model, but also for officers who had not previously presented at committee meetings.

·       A cap on the number of Sub-Committees was recommended.

·       More officer delegations were encouraged in a committee model, enabling quick decision making on some of the smaller decisions.

Members indicated that they supported the suggested model of four separate committees, with the policy and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.