Issue - meetings

The Council is recommended to make the resolutions set out in the report at item 7.

At the invitation of the Mayor, Councillor Macleod moved the recommendations of the Standards and General Purposes Committee, duly seconded by Cllr Robini.

Councillor Follows spoke in support of the recommendations which in addition to renaming the Joint Appointments Committee (JAC) as the Joint Senior Staff Committee (JSCC), brought extended terms of reference to include disciplinary matters as well as appointments to the JSCC.

Councillor Hyman sought clarification of whether the wording of the recommendation should be revised as a consequence of Guildford Borough Council having resolved to approve the same matter the previous evening. The Monitoring Officer explained that as Members were cognisant that Guildford Borough Council had approved the matter, the recommendation before Members remained sound. There being no further speakers, the Mayor called upon Members to vote and it was

RESOLVED unanimously that:   

1.              The new Officer Employment Procedure Rules, as set out in Appendix 1 to this report, be adopted into the Constitution

2.              The revised terms of reference for the Joint Appointments Committee and change of its name to “Joint Senior Staff Committee” to reflect its expanded responsibilities, as set out in Appendix 4 to the report, be adopted with immediate effect.

3.              The WBC membership of the Joint Senior Staff Committee, for the remainder of the 2023-24 municipal year, be confirmed as:

·       Councillor Follows    

·       Councillor Fairclough

·       Councillor Martin

The Committee is recommended to make the resolutions set out in the report at item 7.

(Report and appendices to follow).

The Executive Head of Legal and Democratic Services addressed the Committee and introduced the proposed Officer Employment Procedure Rules. She explained that The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England)(Amendment) Regulations 2015 amended statutory process for dismissing the Head of Paid Service, Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer (“the relevant officers”). The 2015 Regulations outlined a new process to be followed and to be incorporated into Council constitutions and sets out specific arrangements that need to be applied to appointment and dismissal of Chief Officers and Deputy Chief Officers (effectively the ‘Joint Management Team’ between Waverley Borough Council & Guildford Borough Council). She explained that currently WBC does not have a set of procedure rules in place which deal with these requirements. She noted the proposed changes to the Terms of Reference of the ‘Joint Appointments Committee’ in Appendix 4 and highlighted the Committee’s expanded responsibilities including their involvement in appointment, discipline and dismissal of a Senior Officer as set out in Appendix 4, including the change of name to the ‘Joint Senior Staff Committee’.

The Committee raised a query about the use of the term ‘Proper Officer’ throughout the proposed Officer Employment Procedure Rules document and whether this can be specified in the Introduction and Definitions section under part 1.1 of Appendix 1.  The Executive Head of Legal and Democratic Services explained that the Proper Officer is a term set out within the Scheme of Delegation and if this is incorporated into the Officer Employment Procedure Rules, there is a risk of the document becoming outdated if there is a change in future.

The Committee therefore recommended that an amendment is made to the Introduction and Definitions section under part 1.1 of Appendix 1, to include a reference to the relevant clause within the Scheme of Delegation which defines the ‘Proper Officer’.

There was discussion about the proposed re-naming of the Joint Appointments Committee to the ‘Joint Senior Staff Committee’ and potential confusion amongst Councillors about this being an all-staff Committee. Cllr Hyman suggested that the Committee could consider renaming it the ‘Joint Senior Staffing Committee’. The Officers advising the Committee did not feel this would be a point of confusion and noted that any change would be subject to approval from the Guildford Borough Council’s Corporate Governance Committee and Full Council because it is a Joint Committee. The Executive Head of Legal and Democratic Services further advised that this Committee could make a recommendation to Full Council ‘subject to the approval of the Guildford Borough Council Full Council’, however it was advised that this mechanism should only be utilised for serious amendments that have been flagged up by the Committee.

The Executive Head of Legal and Democratic Services further advised, in response to queries from Members, that comments from this Committee can be relayed through herself to the GBC Corporate Governance and Standards Committee on 18 January 2024 for recommendation to the GBC Full Council. Members of the Committee did not feel that an amendment to the name would be necessary.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7