To submit the
report of the Monitoring Officer (to follow).
Additional documents:
Decision:
To accept the report and ask the Monitoring Officer and the Community
Committee Member to prepare an action plan that reflects the contents of the
report.
Minutes:
Submitted:-
·
A report by the Chair of the Standards Committee and the Community
Committee Member following the completion of a piece of work to better
understand the needs of community council clerks in relation to the ethical
framework and specifically the functions of the Standards Committee.
·
Monitoring Officer’s observations on the report.
The Monitoring
Officer summarised the conclusions of the report in the context of the
Committee's statutory functions in relation to community councils, and the
Community Council Member was then invited to comment on his findings.
The Community
Committee Member noted:-
·
The work with a selection of town and community
council clerks had highlighted that clerks sometimes
had difficulty in contacting the County Council, and that the County Council
should provide a specific helpline for them.
·
It would be beneficial if Welsh Government
prepared a simple leaflet on the Code of Conduct for town and community council
members, and that all members of all councils received a copy of it when
signing to become a councillor.
·
Community council members were confused about
their powers in relation to their relationship with the County Council.
During the
discussion, the following matters were raised:-
·
The Chair and the Community Council Member were thanked for their
significant work in preparing the report, and it was noted that the picture was
unsurprising, as councils differed greatly.
·
A question was asked about the observation in
the Executive Summary that the relationship with Cyngor Gwynedd was more
complicated and needed attention. In
response, the Chair explained that the clerks knew that they should turn to the
Monitoring Officer on matters relating to standards, but
found it more difficult to know who to approach in the County Council regarding
other issues. Although this did not
directly relate to standards, it was a matter that had arisen consistently
during the discussions with clerks.
·
The Monitoring Officer was requested to present
the suggestion of establishing a dedicated helpline for the clerks to the Chief
Executive. In response, the Monitoring
Officer noted, although he would be happy to convey the request, that he was
unclear about the business case behind it, and was of
the view that it would be difficult to progress the idea, particularly in the
Council's current difficult financial position.
He also noted that he did not believe that the report provided a
balanced picture in relation to the County Council’s current working practices
with town and community councils, and that it was likely that there were a number of different points of contact across the county in
that respect.
· In response to the observation that it would be beneficial for the Welsh Government to prepare a leaflet on the Code of Conduct for members, the Monitoring Officer noted that there were specific Code of Conduct guidelines for town and community councils on the Ombudsman's website. A member suggested, although he welcomed the idea of a leaflet, that it would be better to provide a training video on YouTube, and that each councillor would have to sign ... view the full minutes text for item 7