Decision details

The Assembly will be asked to make appointments to the Political Structure and Other Bodies for the 2014/15 municipal year.

The Assembly received this report, introduced by the Chief Executive, relating to the appointment of Members to the various elements of the political structure and other internal and external bodies.

In introducing the report the Chief Executive advised Assembly that as the Pensions Panel will be taking some very important decisions on investment direction and in anticipation of new legislation, it was proposed to appoint an additional Member to the Panel.  Assembly noted that this additional appointment would necessitate an amendment to the Council Constitution.

The Chair invited nominations from the floor for the position of Leader of the Council.

A vote was taken, following which Assembly agreed to elect Councillor Rodwell as the Leader of the Council for a fixed term of four years, and as such, his appointment as Chair of the Cabinet.

Assembly noted the Leader's appointment of his Cabinet as follows:

Councillor White questioned the Leader on why he had decided to appoint two deputies.  The Leader responded that he anticipates increased workloads for both portfolios.  Therefore the creation of a second deputy post will, in his view, provide capacity for additional support to him in the difficult months and years ahead facing this Council.  He added that the cost to the Members' Allowances Scheme of the additional deputy would be offset by the fact that the Scheme to be presented for agreement this evening no longer included a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for the position of Chief Whip (CW), as he had been advised that to do so would be illegal and contrary to legislation.

Councillor McCarthy in enquiring as to the cost that previously applied to the position of CW raised a point of order as to the Leader’s view that the additional cost of a second deputy would be offset from the resultant saving.  In seeking to clarify his comments the Leader stated that he had been advised by officers that the overall budget for members' allowances would not exceed that provided for last year.

Councillor Smith asked that officers look into the basis of payments of an SRA to the previous position of Chief Whip and report back accordingly.

A number of Members expressed opinions as to the decision to appoint two deputies and the makeup of the new Cabinet in general.

The Chair then invited Councillor Carpenter to move the appointments referred to in the tabled Appendices A-E, seconded by Councillor Twomey. 

Assembly agreed:

(i)   the membership of the various Council meetings (Appendix A);

(ii)  the appointment of the Chairs and Deputy Chairs of the various committees and Lead and Deputy Lead Members of the select committees (Appendix B);

(iii)  the appointment of the representatives on various internal and external bodies (Appendix C);

(iv)  the appointment of the Trustees of Local Charities (Appendix D);

(v)  to note the statutory Co-opted Members (Appendix E);

(vi)  to note the resignation of Mr Little as Independent Person (IP) and that the Monitoring Officer was in the process of engaging an IP to fill the vacancy created following his resignation, to be retained on the same terms as the current IP, the appointment to be subsequently reported to the Assembly for approval; and

(vii)  as a consequence of appointing an additional Member to the Pensions Panel, to authorise the Monitoring Officer to amend paragraph 3.1 of Article 9 of the Council Constitution accordingly.