Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Snow Room - Ground Floor, West Offices (G035). View directions

Contact: Louise Cook  Democracy Officer

Items
No. Item

59.

Declarations of Interest (5:32 pm) pdf icon PDF 222 KB

At this point in the meeting, Members and co-opted members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest, or other registerable interest, they might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

 

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

 

[Please see attached sheet for further guidance for Members].

 

Minutes:

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, any prejudicial interests or any disclosable pecuniary interests they might have in the business on the agenda. None were declared.

60.

Public Participation (5:32 pm)

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the Committee.

 

Please note that our registration deadlines are set as 2 working days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of public participation at our meetings.  The deadline for registering at this meeting is 5:00pm on Monday, 18 March 2024.

 

To register to speak please visit www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill in an online registration form.  If you have any questions about the registration form or the meeting, please contact Democratic Services.  Contact details can be found at the foot of this agenda.

 

Webcasting of Public Meetings

 

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The meeting can be viewed live and on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

 

During coronavirus, we made some changes to how we ran council meetings, including facilitating remote participation by public speakers. See our updates (www.york.gov.uk/COVIDDemocracy) for more information on meetings and decisions.

 

 

Minutes:

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

61.

Proposed Changes to the Composition and Quorum of Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee (5:33 pm) pdf icon PDF 561 KB

The report asks Members to agree the proposed addition of wording into Article 11 of the Constitution.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report that proposed amending Article 11 of the Constitution by the introduction of the following paragraph:

 

1.3    The Committee shall comprise five members and shall have a quorum of three members.

 

The Director of Governance and Monitoring Officer noted the recent difficulties in organising a Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee (SMUC) which had highlighted a flaw in the Council’s Constitution relating to SMUC and its quoracy. This position had impacted on the ability of the Council to conduct its business in a lawful and timely manner and in order to remedy this, it was proposed that Article 11 be amended.

 

During discussion, it was acknowledged that it was preferable for committee places to be comprised of odd numbers to minimise the need for the Chair’s casting vote. It was also noted that the political balance and number of places across all the remaining committees would continue to be reviewed by the cross-party Constitution Working Group prior to consideration by the Audit and Governance Committee and Full Council.

 

The operational issues and the urgency element of the change was acknowledged and it was confirmed that this issue had also been considered by the cross-party Constitution Working Group who had agreed that the proposed amendment would ensure that urgent business of the council would be conducted more effectively, and it would allow for the quoracy of meetings to become more explicit in the Constitution.

 

The political balance calculation was also discussed and the Committee noted that due to the quoracy change the overall seats would increase from 107 to 108. This would result in SMUC changing to three Labour and two Liberal Democrat places and overall there would be a political change to a scrutiny committee, where Labour would reduce its seats from six to five and the Liberal Democrats would rise from four to five.

 

Having being put to the vote, it was unanimously:

 

Resolved:  That the proposed additional wording, as set out in paragraph 6 of the report and above, be endorsed, and remit the matter for consideration at the Council meeting to be held on Thursday, 21 March 2024.

 

Reason: In order to remedy an error in the Constitution, to ensure that the Council can lawfully and expeditiously carry on its business.

 

 

 

 

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