Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

At this point in the meeting, Members were asked to declare any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests that they might have had in the business on the agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee held on 27 October 2014.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the last meeting held on 27 October 2014 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so. The deadline for registering is Friday 7 November 2014 at 5.00 pm.

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Ben Drake from UNISON spoke on Agenda Item 4 (Local Government Pension Scheme 2014 Discretions Policy). He commented on the proposals in Paragraphs 6, 8 and 10. He recognised that the Council would continue with the position that they would not ordinarily waive actuarial reductions in the event of early payment, nor contribute to cost sharing arrangements, but asked that they retain the discretion to waive/contribute in exceptional circumstances. As a result of this a process would need to be put in place for exceptional cases.

This report informs the Committee of changes to the Council’s Discretions Policy following implementation of the Local Government Pension Scheme 2014, and asks the Committee to approve the updated Employers Discretions policy so it can be implemented.

Members considered a report which informed them of changes to the Council’s Pension Discretions Policy which needed to be updated following the implementation of the Local Government Pension Scheme 2014. They were asked to approve the updated Pension Discretions policy so that it could be implemented.

Officers informed Members that since publication of the agenda, further discussions had taken place with the Director of Finance and the Committee were asked to consider a further minor amendment to the policy which would allow discretions under pension scheme regulation 30(8), 1(2), 2(2), 3(1), 30(5) and 30A(5) be considered in exceptional circumstances.  Any proposed discretion in exceptional circumstances proposed under the policy would be considered by the Committee.

Resolved:  (i) That the revised Local Government Pension Scheme Employer Discretions Policy be approved.

                  (ii) That an amendment is made so that any proposed discretions in exceptional circumstances can be considered by the Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee.

Reason:       So that the policy can be implemented.

This report asks Members to agree a number of changes in membership and appointments to Committees and Outside Bodies for the remainder of the municipal year.

Members considered a report which asked them to agree a number of changes in membership and appointments to Committees and Outside Bodies for the remainder of the municipal year.

A number of the proposed appointments were discussed in further detail including;

NewCo Shareholders Group

Discussion took place on the substitute arrangements for the Group. Members were also informed that once established, the group would meet every 2 months.

York Central Lead Members

The Chair gave some background to Members about previous Council involvement in the development and delivery of the York Central site. He added that the proposed working group would be more of a consultative rather than a decision making body. Members felt that a Ward Member from Holgate and Micklegate  should also be included in the membership as the site was located in both wards. It was confirmed that Councillor Alexander would be the Labour member on the group and that meetings would be chaired by an Officer.

Resolved:  That the following appointments and nominations be  agreed¹;

(i)           Councillor Brooks as Vice-Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee.

(ii)          Councillor Fitzpatrick as Vice-Chair of the Learning and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

(iii)        Councillor Doughty as the City of York Council representative on the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Yorkshire and the Humber), with Councillor Funnell as substitute.

(iv)        Councillors Crisp, Williams, Steward, Hyman and Taylor to the NewCo Shareholders Committee, and for the Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism to Chair the Committee.

(v)        Councillors Alexander, Steward, Aspden, D’Agorne, King and Watson to the York Central Lead Members  and the addition of a Ward Member from Micklegate and Holgate Wards.

(vi)        Councillors Alexander (Chair), Cuthbertson and Healey to the City of York Council Trading Company Shareholder Board.

(vii)      Councillor Healey as the Council appointee to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority-Investment Committee in place of Councillor Levene.

(viii)     Councillor Waller as the Council appointee to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority-Audit and Governance Committee in place of Councillor McIlveen.

(ix)        Councillor Fitzpatrick as the Labour appointee to the Police and Crime Panel.

Reason:    In order to make appropriate appointments to the Council’s Committees and Outside Bodies for the current municipal year.