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    • Agenda and minutes

    Standards Committee - Wednesday, 27th June, 2018 10.00 am

    • Attendance details
    • Agenda frontsheet PDF 63 KB
    • Agenda reports pack PDF 1 MB
    • Printed minutes PDF 67 KB

    Venue: Committee Room A - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. View directions

    Contact: Elizabeth Patterson  01597 826980

    Items
    No. Item

    1.

    Apologies

    To receive apologies for absence.

    Minutes:

    Apologies for absence were received from Mr C Pinney, Monitoring Officer.

     

    In attendance:

    Ms D Jones (Deputy Monitoring Officer), Mr W Richards (Head of Democratic Services), Mrs L Patterson (Scrutiny Officer) and Ms C Johnson (Democratic Services Officer)

    2.

    Minutes pdf icon PDF 76 KB

    To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the previous meeting of the Committee held on the following date as a correct record:

    ·         7th February 2018

     

    Minutes:

    The Chair was authorised to sign the minutes of the last meeting held on the 7 February 2018 as a correct record.

    3.

    Declarations of interest

    To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda.

    Minutes:

    No declarations of interest were received.

    4.

    Adroddiad Cyfreithiwr y Sir pdf icon PDF 92 KB

    To receive the report of the Solicitor to the Council.

    Additional documents:

    • Code of Conduct Casebook Eng Issue 15 January 2018 , item 4. pdf icon PDF 554 KB
    • Code-of-Conduct-Casebook-Eng-Issue-16-January-2018 , item 4. pdf icon PDF 294 KB
    • 12 Draft Sanctions Guidance , item 4. pdf icon PDF 162 KB

    Minutes:

    The Committee received the report of the Solicitor to the Council (copy filed with signed minutes).

     

    A         General Standards Issues for County Councillors and Co-opted Members

     

    A1       Code of Conduct Training

     

    All Members and Co-opted Members have undertaken Code of Conduct training.

     

    A2       Mandatory Training

     

    Treasury Management is a mandatory training session.  Members have had two opportunities to attend this training and there are thirteen members who have yet to undergo this training.  A further session has been arranged for 20th July 2018.

     

     

    Resolved that:

    Reason for recommendation:

    The Chair write to the 13 Members advising they are required to attend the Mandatory Treasury Management Development Session on 20th July 2018.

    To ensure compliance with the Council’s policy regarding Mandatory Training.

     

    B         Referral of Councillors to Public Services Ombudsman

     

    B1       County Councillor Referrals

     

    02/CC/2017    Ombudsman investigating.

    01/CC/2018    Ombudsman investigating

    02/CC/2018    Ombudsman investigating

    03/CC/2018    Complaint received – not investigating

    04/CC/2018    Ombudsman deciding whether or not to investigate

    05/CC/2018    Ombudsman investigating

    06/CC/2018    Complaint received – not investigating

    07/CC/2018    Complaint received – not investigating

    08/CC/2018    Ombudsman deciding whether or not to investigate

     

    C         Dispensations

     

    C1       Applications - County Councillors

     

                No applications for dispensation had been received from County Councillors.

     

    D         Delegation for urgent matters

     

    There are only three meetings a year of the Standards Committee in the diary.  Extraordinary meetings of Standards Committee may be called where urgent matters are required to be decided Members considered delegating authority to the Chair and Vice-Chair of Standards Committee together with the Monitoring Officer to take a holding decision pending confirmation of the position at the next Standards Committee.  Decisions such as this will be limited to non-controversial applications for dispensation and it was stressed that if it was deemed necessary for a meeting to call this would happen. 

     

    RESOLVED THAT:

    REASON FOR RESOLUTION:

    Committee delegate non-controversial applications for dispensation to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee in consultation with the Monitoring Officer to grant a temporary dispensation subject to confirmation at Standards Committee for a trial period of one year

     

    To allow applications for dispensation to be decided in a timely manner but confirmed at a meeting of the Standards Committee.

     

    E         Late Payment of Expenses

     

    A claim for payment of expenses was submitted by Councillor Karen Laurie-Parry for mileage expenses (submitted on 15th April 2018 for October, November and December 2017).

     

    The Committee approved this application (which was the first one for mileage made by this Member) and thanked the Member for the detailed explanation she had provided.

     

    RESOLVED THAT:

    REASON FOR DECISION

    i)             the payment of the late claim submitted by Cllr Karen Laurie-Parry for mileage be paid for the period October, November and December 2017

    To reimburse expenses incurred by Cllr K Laurie-Parry.

     

    F          Ombudsman’s Casebook

     

    The Ombudsman had published Code of Conduct Casebooks for the following period:

     

    ·         October - December 2017

    ·         January – March 2018

     

    A copy of these Casebooks were attached at Appendix A.

     

    G         Annual Report from Adjudication Panel for Wales

     

    The Adjudication Panel  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.