Marie Rosenthal, interim Monitoring Officer, opened the meeting and invited nominations to elect a Member to preside over the meeting as the Chair of Committee was not present nor had a Vice-Chair been elected.

It was proposed by Councillor G Waller that Councillor G Brown be elected to preside over the meeting, this was seconded and upon being put to the vote, with three votes in favour and one abstention Councillor G Brown was elected.

RESOLVED

a) That Councillor G Brown be APPOINTED to preside at the meeting.

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Councillor G Brown then took the Chair until the election of a Vice Chair.

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To record any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors L Stephenson and R Powell.

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any disclosable interests under the Code of Conduct and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from members of the public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 93.

The total time allowed for this shall be 30 minutes. Petitions, deputations and questions shall be dealt with in the order in which they are received.

No petitions, deputations or questions had been received.

To consider any questions received from Members of the Council in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 95.

No questions from Members had been received.

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted under Procedure Rule 97.

No notices of motion had been received.

To appoint a Vice-Chair of the Committee for the municipal year.

It was moved by Councillor G Waller that Councillor G Brown be elected as Vice-Chair. This was seconded and upon being put to the vote with three votes in favour and one abstention Councillor G Brown was elected.

RESOLVED

a)     That Councillor G Brown be APPOINTED as Vice-Chair of the Commission for the 2022-23 municipal year. 

To receive the Constitution Commission Work Plan and note the expected items for future meetings.

A draft workplan for the Commission was presented by Marie Rosenthal, Interim Deputy Director of Corporate Governance, and Tom Delaney, Governance Manager.

It was noted the workplan was intended to be flexible and would be amended throughout the year as required.

During debate the following points were noted:

• That several meeting dates and locations were subject to change due to diary clashes and requests from Members and would be amended after the meeting.
• That a Review of the Overview and Scrutiny function would be included

RESOLVED

a)     That the Workplan be received and updated with the various changes requested by Members.

Action: Governance

To receive a copy of the proposed Flag Policy for recommendation to Council for approval.

A draft Flag Policy for the Council was presented by Marie Rosenthal, Interim Deputy Director of Corporate Governance, and Tom Delaney, Governance Manager. It was noted that the policy was in response to a recent motion regarding the Ukrainian flag and would set a framework for future requests.

During debate the following amendments to the policy were requested:

• References to ‘Civic Office’ be removed in favour of ‘Governance Team’ to reflect better known terminology.
• Several national days at 4.2 would be removed to avoid committing the Council and a caveat would be placed in the policy to say other days such as these may be agreed.
• References to consultation with the Leader of the Council be expanded to include the Chairman of the Council as the Council’s civic head.
• The policy would be clarified to be clear that the only alternative to the Union Flag being flown would be the Royal Standard. 

RESOLVED

a)     That the Flag Policy be amended and recommended to Council for approval subject to the changes requested by Members and a final copy being circulated to the Commission for comment after the meeting and before submission to Council.

Action: Governance

To receive Report No.102/2022 from the Monitoring Officer.

Report No. 102/2022 and accompanying draft Member Development Strategy for the Council were presented by Marie Rosenthal, Interim Deputy Director of Corporate Governance, and Tom Delaney, Governance Manager. It was noted that the current approach to Member development was managed in an ad-hoc fashion and the Strategy would facilitate a structured approach in a variety of areas ahead of the 2023 elections. The Strategy was welcomed by Members as an opportunity to set out the support available to all Councillors in their various decision-making roles and within the funding available.

During debate the several amendments to the strategy were requested including:

• That greater emphasis would be placed on the need to train new Cabinet Members among other roles.
• That there be fewer references to COVID-19 given the country had largely moved into a post-COVID environment.
• Consideration would be given to the need to support group leaders in their mentoring roles to newer members.
• References to leadership would be amended to reflect the different types of leadership undertaken by Councillors.
• References would be added to training and briefings on upcoming national changes such as Levelling Up.

Consideration was then given to the draft Member Training Plan for 2022-23 and it was agreed this would be updated with several factual amendments requested by Members and be regularly provided to the Commission’s meetings and then shared with Members.

It was also requested that an item be scheduled at the January meeting regarding the 2023 Member Induction.

RESOLVED

a)     That the Commission’s Workplan be amended to reflect the requested items.

Action: Governance

b)     That Council be recommended to appoint the Constitution Commission to lead on Member Development.

c)     The draft Members Development Strategy be recommended to Council for approval subject to the changes requested by Members and a final copy being circulated to the Commission for comment after the meeting.

Action: Governance

To receive items of urgent business which have previously been notified to the person presiding.

There were no items of urgent business for consideration although thanks were expressed to Marie Rosenthal for her commitment and work for the Council as Interim Deputy Director of Corporate Governance and Monitoring Officer.