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ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN To confirm the decision taken by the Council at its meeting on 14 May 2015 to elect Councillor Tom Ellis as Chairperson of this Committee for 2015/16. Minutes: It was resolved to confirm the
Council’s resolution at its meeting on 14 May 2015, to elect Councillor Tom
Ellis as Chair of this Committee for 2015/16. The Chair thanked Councillor Lesley Day for
her work and commitment as Chair to this Committee over the last two years. |
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ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRMAN To elect a Vice-chairman for this Committee for 2015/16. Minutes: It was resolved to elect
Councillor Anne Lloyd Jones as Vice-chair of this Committee for 2015/16. |
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WELCOME Minutes: A
welcome was extended to Mr Geraint Owen, who had recently been appointed to the
post of Head of Democratic Services and best wishes were given to him in his
new post. |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive any declaration of personal interest. Minutes: No declarations of personal interest were received from any members present. |
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The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the last meeting of this committee held on 10 March 2015, be signed as a true record. Minutes: The Chair
signed the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee held on 10 March
2015, as a true record. |
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ANNUAL REPORTS BY MEMBERS PDF 110 KB To consider the report of the Head of Democratic Services. Minutes: (a) A report was submitted by the Senior
Manager – Democracy and Delivery and the Democratic Services Manager regarding
producing annual reports to include factual information of activities, if
Members so wished. (b) It
was noted that there was a suggestion in the white paper on changing the status
of annual reports to be statutory with statistics of members' attendance in
meetings / training to be included as public information rather than only in
the annual reports. Reference was made to the template in Appendix 1 to be sent
to Members, in accordance with the procedure implemented last year, with some
information already prepared for them to submit their reports by the end of
June. The Committee’s comments/views on the proposals were requested. (c)
The following points were
highlighted by individual Members: (i) That
some members did not see that producing an annual report was beneficial and if
support was received from the Council then producing a circular to include work
undertaken by elected Members in their wards would be much more effective. (ii) It
was disappointing that only 26 Members had produced an annual report last year
and more Members should be encouraged to produce them via discussions with the
Political Groups. (iii) It
was pleasing that there was an increase in the numbers compared to the previous
year (8) and it was a very useful tool for Members and there was evidence that
a great deal of individuals read the annual reports. (iv)
That members had less opportunity
than others to serve the county as they wished as they had not been chosen to
sit on external bodies. (v)
It was suggested, where
reference was made to absences in attending committees, that it would be useful
to create an additional box for Members to be able
to give the reasons why they could not attend as usually they had other commitments
on behalf of the Council e.g. in the role of Champions. (ch) The above observations were welcomed and it was
stressed that the annual reports were seen as a minimum requirement and that
anything Members produce above this was to be welcomed, but unfortunately it
would not be possible for the Council to agree and commit to support anything
further in the current financial climate.
Resolved: To accept and note the contents of the
report and approve the format of the template subject to having an additional
box to state the reasons for absence from committees. |
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MEMBERS' ATTENDANCE AND ALLOWANCES PDF 72 KB To consider the report of the Head of Democratic Services. Minutes: (a) A
report was submitted by the Senior Manager - Democracy and Delivery and the
Democratic Services Manager updating Members on the requirements to publish and
report on attendance and allowances. (b) It
was noted that it was necessary for the Council to publish information about
the salaries proposed to be paid to Members for 2015/16 together with
information about salaries and expenses paid to them during 2014/15. This year
it was proposed to publish the information on the Council’s website as well as
in ‘Newyddion Gwynedd’. (c) During
the ensuing discussion the following points were highlighted: (i)
In terms of care allowance, that clarification
should be included on members’ rights to care allowance be that child care or a
dependent as members had been criticised for receiving this in the past. (ii)
It should be noted that the Chair / Vice-chair of this Committee do not
receive an allowance for the office, in
order to give the public the full picture. (iii) That some Members had the role of a
Champion for special areas which entailed a great deal of additional travelling
and in order to give a full picture that there should be an explanation to
explain the miles travelled for the additional work compared to other members. (ii)
That various Members served on the Council’s
behalf on other external bodies such as the National Park, Fire Service, Cartrefi Cymunedol Gwynedd and
they attended many meetings that meant a great deal of travelling hours. (iii)
That the sample diary of a Member’s work
published last year was very interesting and useful to the public where their
duties were noted and how many committees they attended. (iv)
In terms of the attendance of Members at
meetings, some discontent was expressed that some Members did not attend
regularly and this was an insult to the Council and their electors and they did
not undertake their duties to the utmost. (v)
Following on from the above, it was expressed
that some Members did not feel that there was any value to attend committees as
they could not make resolutions. (vi)
Percentages were not a fair reflection of
attendance for those who serve on fewer committees. (vii)
In the context of attending courses/training,
that is would be useful if the provision could be offered in the evening or
on-line in order to facilitate this for those who work from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (x)
It was suggested that it may be beneficial to produce an hours sheet for
Members to complete to justify the hours spent in meetings/local work etc. (ch) The officers responded to the above
comments as follows: (a) that
an explanation could be presented regarding the additional responsibilities
of Members who have to travel a great
deal more miles compared with other Members, this would be different to last
year (b) in terms of the sample diary, it was suggested that it may be possible to submit an article to ‘Newyddion Gwynedd’ based on questions and ... view the full minutes text for item 7. |
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TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS PDF 83 KB To consider the report of the Head of Democratic Services. Minutes: (A) Provision of
Electronic Tablets The
report of the Senior Manager, Democracy and Delivery and the Democratic
Services Manager was submitted updating Members on Information Technology
issues. It
was noted that a pilot session had been organised for eight members on 26 June
2015 to improve their skills when using i-Pads. Dependent on the feedback from this session,
they would proceed to continue with other small groups. (a) During
the ensuing discussion the following points were highlighted: by individual
Members: (i)
The i-pad software (Apple) was not compatible
with the corporate computer system (Microsoft). (ii)
That further training was a waste of time and
having more software on the tablets would be more useful (iii)
It was disappointing that the training was in
Welsh only and some Members found it difficult to follow and every Member was
not so computer literate (iv)
That too much use of the i-pad caused eye
problems (v)
Difficulties to open some appendices The
Senior Information Technology Manager responded to the above observations as
follows: (a) That
many of the members were aware of the basic functions of i-pads but were eager
to be more confident in their use. It
was further noted that no decision had been made regarding additional software. (b) That
the IT Unit could not support different types of software only the standard
i-pad software. (c) That
the use of tablets was more for reading and responding to e-mails and if work
was required with spreadsheets, letters etc. then this should be undertaken on
a personal computer. (ch)That training would be useful to justify screen
brightness, font size, checking unfortunate incidents when vocabulary was
changed. (d) It
was suggested that any Member experiencing difficulties to open appendices
should forward this information to the IT Unit in order to further investigate
the problem. Resolved: To
approve to proceed with the pilot training programme and report back with the
feedback to the next Committee meeting. (B) Modern Gov It
was reported for information, by the Senior Manager Democracy and Delivery,
regarding the above electronic committee management system that offered more
flexibility and was a way of publishing material on the Council’s new website. The system would enable: ·
more effective administration of committees ·
placing agendas more conveniently on members’
tablets ·
to merge with the Council’s web-casting system ·
a convenient way of collection of data on
attendance etc. It
was trusted that the system would be installed in July, with training for
Members on 25 November 2015. Further
information would be shared in 'Rhaeadr' once the
system had been installed. The
Senior IT Manager gave an undertaking to investigate further into the weakness
of the tablets to search the new website in accordance with a Member's request. Resolved: To
accept and note the above information. (C) Town
and Community Councils Websites Members were reminded of the grant provision of £500 made available in 2013/14 for Town and Community Councils to establish a website and 48 councils in Gwynedd had benefited ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVIEWS PDF 117 KB To consider the report of the Head of Democratic Services. Minutes: (a)
A report was submitted by the Senior Manager -
Democracy and Delivery and the Democratic Services Manager updating the Members
on the Council’s arrangements regarding personal development interviews. (b) It
was noted that Members had been offered an opportunity to have a discussion
regarding their needs in order to feed these into their training programme. 26
members had been part of the process and their views were sought on how they
had benefited from being part of this. A
response had been received from a small number with varied comments – some saw
a huge benefit to the process and other saw none. It was proposed to conduct a series of
meetings from September to December and the next steps were expanded upon
within the report. (c)
Members were requested for their views regarding
continuing with the round of interviews and / or give an opportunity for those
who had not previously been interviewed to have an opportunity during September
to December. (ch)
In response, the Member noted that training was extremely important and
it was not possible to have too much. It was further
suggested that implementing a rolling programme of interviews every two years would be beneficial. Resolved: (a) To accept and note the contents of the report. (b) To
approve to offer interviews to those Members who did not have an opportunity in
the last round, to be interviewed during the Autumn and to implement a rolling
programme of interviews thereafter every two years. |
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THE WORK PROGRAMME FOR THE YEAR PDF 89 KB To consider the report of the Head of Democratic Services on the proposed programme for the year. Minutes: (a) A
draft work programme was submitted for the Committee's consideration in order
to forward plan the year's work. (b) The
views of the Committee were requested on the draft programme framework drawing
specific attention to the items listed. (c) The
draft work programme was welcomed and especially the opportunity to hold a
dialogue with the Chair of the Standards Committee in order to understand the
terms of reference of that committee and the relationship between both
committees. (ch) The Head of
Democratic Services took the opportunity to address the Committee by stating
that the Democratic Services Teams, Members’ Support, Cabinet, Political Groups
and the Translators ensured support for the democratic process and were
experienced in the field. It was
recognised that more on-line training needed to be considered and that a great
deal of work occurred via the E-learning field.
Whilst accepting that members had different expertise, he stressed the
need to work together in order to enable Members to undertake effective
scrutiny in committees. Resolved: To
accept, note and approve the draft work programme as a basic framework together
with any matters that will arise requiring attention. |