Agenda item

To approve and sign the minutes of the Audit & Governance Committee meetings held on 30 April, 20 June and 27 June 2018.

Members considered minutes of the meetings held on 30 April, 20 June and 27 June.

In respect of the minutes of the meeting held on 30 April Members requested that the following amendments be made:

·        Minute item 66.

Para1 - to add the sentence:

‘The Chair advised all public speakers that they should avoid saying anything defamatory or discriminatory, anything that constitute a personal attack on an officer or anything that discloses confidential or exempt information including personal information’.

Para 2 - to read: ‘...of the Audit & Governance Committee on 22 February 2017 and asked for a full public disclosure of the report. He also raised further concerns in relation to historic procurement issues, which in his opinion have not been properly clarified and resolved.’

Para 3 - to read: ‘...not dealt with properly and that residents’ emails and social media communication have been blocked on social media. From his point of view residents with legitimate concerns are vilified and claims of defamation or discrimination are wrongly brought up. He also stressed that historic issues can and should be revisited by councillors until completely resolved.’

Para 4 - to read: ‘...transparency issues and his feeling that it has been attempted to scare him off with legal threats of defamation and discrimination. He stated that residents should have a right to question the Council and urged the Committee to deal with these issues. He also raised concerns of the council funding legal advice on officer’s personal reputation claims.’

Para 5 - to add the sentence:

‘He also raised a potential conflict between sessions in private and the rights of all members of the council to stay in meetings after press and public are excluded.’

·        Minute Item 67 (to become Minute Item 68).

Para 2 – To read: ‘The committee also noted It was also suggested by Members that this report should be referred to ask the Walker Report after the consultant who wrote it. renamed ahead of the next meeting as They did not consider this an LGA report as Ms Linda Walker had only been asked by the LGA after being asked by the Council’s Chief Executive to carry out the investigation’.

Resolved – To add the sentence:

‘A special meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee to be convened as soon as possible, where the report can be considered by the committee in private session’.

In respect of the minutes of the meeting held on 20 June Members requested that the following amendments be made:

·        Minute Item 3.

Para 1 – To add the sentence:

‘The Chair stated that, although Mr Laverack had withdrawn his registration to speak, he wished for it to be recorded that his complaint regarding how he had been dealt with by the Council had not been answered.’

·        Minute Item 4.

Para 2 – Remove the phrase ‘reminded Members’ and replace with ‘stated’.

Para 3 – Remove ‘he felt’

·        Minute Item 5.

Para 5, Bullet 4 - Remove the word ‘expected’ and replace with ‘required’.

Para 6 – To read: Following advice from the Deputy Monitoring Officer At this point in the meeting it was agreed to exclude the press and public and move into private session at this point, to allow all Members to consider the confidential legal advice.

Para 7 – To read: ‘...After a short recess, where she took advice from the Deputy Monitoring Officer, the Chief Executive advised Councillor Rawlings he would have that, following the advice she had been given, she had made the decision to exclude him from to leave the meeting as he was not a Member of the Audit and Governance Committee, and had not demonstrated a need to know the exempt information in order to carry out his duties as a Councillor. He was therefore not entitled to access the exempt information. She also stated that letting Councillor Rawlings stay would change the political balance of the meeting. The Chair commented that he would have allowed Councillor Rawlings to remain in the meeting.

Para 8 – To add the sentence:

‘Finally they stated that they would not have long enough to read the report, given that usual practice was to provide papers 5 days working days before the meeting’.

Para 11 – To add the sentence:

‘The Chief Executive explained that only the recommendations contained in the public report could be dealt with by this committee, as the recommendations in the exempt annex had all been dealt with via other processes and were provided as background information only’. 

Signature Block to read:

Councillor Steward, Vice Chair in the Chair

Councillor Williams, Committee Member in the Chair during part of private session

[The meeting started at 5.30pm and ended at 8.50pm]

Members also asked that clarification was sought from the Chief Executive and Deputy Monitoring Officer on the following points:

1.   When was the last time, if ever, that Councillors at CYC had been asked to sign a confidentiality undertaking?

2.   How many of the three sources of legal advice the Chief Executive received were external?

3.   Councillors Lisle and Steward stated that, during the private session on 20 June, the Chief Executive agreed to publish the recommendations in the LGA report in their entirety. The Committee agreed the Chief Executive should be asked why this had not happened.

Resolved:  That;

1.   The minutes of the meeting held on 30 April be approved and then signed by the Chair as a correct record, subject to the above amendments;

2.   The minutes of the meeting held on 20 June be amended as requested and brought back to the next meeting for approval; and

3.   The minutes of the meeting held on 27 June be approved and then signed by the Chair as a correct record.

4.   The Democracy Officer seek clarification from the Chief Executive and DMO on the above points.