Agenda and minutes

The Chief Executive announced the formation of the Labour Group for the purposes of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990.

The Chief Executive shall invite nominations and conduct the vote for the positions of Chair and Deputy Chair of the Assembly.

The Chief Executive invited nominations from the floor for the appointment of Chair and Deputy Chair of the Assembly.

A vote was taken following which Assembly agreed the appointment of Councillors Ramsay and Ghani as Chair and Deputy Chair of the Assembly respectively.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2014 were confirmed as correct.

Assembly noted with deep regret that following a long illness, Councillor Tony Perry had passed away on 12 April 2014.

Members paid tribute to Councillor Perry, recalling their personal anecdotes and commenting that he was a hard working ward member who stood up for the interests of the elderly and young of the borough, as well as being a good, well rounded human being and a larger than life character whom everyone in the community knew.

The Assembly stood for a minute's silence as a mark of respect.

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)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Assembly received this report relating to the Members' Allowances Scheme for the 2014/15 municipal year introduced by the Monitoring Officer.

Councillor McCarthy referred to the debate under minute 6, specifically the Leader’s reasoning for appointing two Deputy Leaders, namely the perceived additional work load for each Deputy in relation to their portfolios of Housing and Finance. He stated that as the former Cabinet Member for Housing, he had not been consulted on his workload and could see no evidence of it having increased.  On that basis he could not support the Members' Allowances Scheme as presented.

Given Councillor McCarthy's remarks, Councillor White proposed that approval of the Scheme, including the provision of two Deputy Leaders, should be conditional on no further monies being expended on Member allowances overall.

The report recommended that no increase would be applied to Members’ basic and special responsibility allowances for 2014/15, representing a freeze in allowance levels for the sixth year in succession.  On that basis a vote was taken and the Assembly agreed that:

The meeting closed at 7.35 pm