Issue - meetings

Cabinet AGREED:             

A) Portfolio Holder meetings should provide a timely public forum for

• The determination of decisions falling within each Portfolio Holder’s remit.
• The agreement and subsequent monitoring of service plans and other performance information within that remit.
• The consideration, including appropriate pre-scrutiny, of certain matters for subsequent determination by the Cabinet and Council.” 

B) That the following operating guidelines in respect of Portfolio Holder meetings be agreed:

• In the interests of open and transparent government, all Portfolio Holder decisions shall be taken at meetings;
• The Chief Executive, Executive Director or appropriate Corporate Manager, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, is authorised to determine where, in the case of urgent and unforeseen matters, it is appropriate for a matter to be determined outside a formal meeting.
• Annual meeting schedules for each Portfolio Holder shall be agreed at his/her first meeting of the civic year or by mid-June, whichever is the earlier.
• Scheduled meetings shall be cancelled when there is no substantive business to be considered.
• The Portfolio Holder may request that additional meetings are arranged as and when required.
• Reports to Portfolio Holder meetings shall be presented by the relevant member of the Executive Management Team (Chief Officer, Corporate Manager, the Human Resources Manager or Principal Solicitor), unless other specific arrangements have been agreed in advance between the Portfolio Holder and officer(s) concerned.
• Each Portfolio Holder shall maintain, for agreement at each meeting, a Forward Plan identifying all matters relevant to the Portfolio which it is believed are likely to be the subject of consideration and/or decision by the Portfolio Holder, Cabinet, Council, or any other constituent part of the Council. The plan shall be updated as necessary and published on the Council’s website following each meeting; the Portfolio Holder shall be responsible for the content and accuracy of their forward plan.
• That Portfolio Holder agenda should not, save in exceptional circumstances, contain either reports ‘to follow’ or items for verbal update.
• Reports and recommendations shall be set out on the corporate template. Decision notices are not required for matters to be decided at Portfolio Holder meetings, however they shall continue to be used if a decision is required to be taken outside of a formal meeting.

Cabinet

AGREED       

A)           Portfolio Holder meetings should

Provide a timely public forum for

·         The determination of decisions falling within each Portfolio Holder’s remit

·         The agreement and subsequent monitoring of service plans and other performance information within that remit.

·         The consideration, including appropriate pre-scrutiny, of certain matters for subsequent determination by the Cabinet and Council.”

B)           That the following operating guidelines in respect of Portfolio Holder meetings be agreed:

(i)                  In the interests of open and transparent government, all Portfolio Holder decisions shall be taken at meetings;

(ii)                The Chief Executive, Executive Director or appropriate Corporate Manager, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, is authorised to determine where, in the case of urgent and unforeseen matters, it is appropriate for a matter to be determined outside a formal meeting.

(iii)               Annual meeting schedules for each Portfolio Holder shall be agreed at his/her first meeting of the civic year or by mid-June, whichever is the earlier.

(iv)              Scheduled meetings shall be cancelled when there is no substantive business to be considered.

(v)                The Portfolio Holder may request that additional meetings are arranged as and when required.

(vi)              Reports to Portfolio Holder meetings shall be presented by the relevant member of the Executive Management Team (Chief Officer, Corporate Manager, the Human Resources Manager or Principal Solicitor), unless other specific arrangements have been agreed in advance between the Portfolio Holder and officer(s) concerned.

(vii)             Each Portfolio Holder shall maintain, for agreement at each meeting, a Forward Plan identifying all matters relevant to the Portfolio which it is believed are likely to be the subject of consideration and/or decision by the Portfolio Holder, Cabinet, Council, or any other constituent part of the Council. The plan shall be updated as necessary and published on the Council’s website following each meeting; the Portfolio Holder shall be responsible for the content and accuracy of their forward plan.

(viii)           That Portfolio Holder agenda should not, save in exceptional circumstances, contain either reports ‘to follow’ or items for verbal update.

(ix)              Reports and recommendations shall be set out on the corporate template. Decision notices are not required for matters to be decided at Portfolio Holder meetings, however they shall continue to be used if a decision is required to be taken outside of a formal meeting.

The Leader presented this report on introducing operating guidelines to the portfolio holder meetings for 2008/09.

Determining matters outside portfolio holder meetings

Cabinet agreed that the recommendations should be amended to ensure that the Chief Executive or Executive Director could be consulted with regard to determining matters outside a scheduled portfolio holder meeting.

Schedule of meetings

Following a request from the Chairman of Scrutiny it was agreed that the schedule of portfolio meetings should be decided before the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee on 19 June, which will appoint its monitors to these portfolios.

Publishing decisions

Cabinet confirmed that any decisions taken outside portfolio holder meetings would be reported to the next scheduled meeting and that all decisions would be published expeditiously.

Cost

The Chief Executive explained that the cost in terms of officer time for having scheduled portfolio holder meetings was offset by the savings of shorter focussed Cabinet meetings, which delegated many of its decisions to portfolio holders.

It was noted that there was flexibility in the process, which allowed meetings to be rescheduled or cancelled if there was a lack of business.

Cabinet

AGREED       

A)           Portfolio Holder meetings should

Provide a timely public forum for

·         The determination of decisions falling within each Portfolio Holder’s remit

·         The agreement and subsequent monitoring of service plans and other performance information within that remit.

·         The consideration, including appropriate pre-scrutiny, of certain matters for subsequent determination by the Cabinet and Council.

B)           That the following operating guidelines in respect of Portfolio Holder meetings be agreed:

(i)                  In the interests of open and transparent government, all Portfolio Holder decisions shall be taken at meetings;

(ii)                The Chief Executive, Executive Director or appropriate Corporate Manager, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, is authorised to determine where, in the case of urgent and unforeseen matters, it is appropriate for a matter to be determined outside a formal meeting.

(iii)               Annual meeting schedules for each Portfolio Holder shall be agreed at his/her first meeting of the civic year or by mid-June, whichever is the earlier.

(iv)              Scheduled meetings shall be cancelled when there is no substantive business to be considered.

(v)                The Portfolio Holder may request that additional meetings are arranged as and when required.

(vi)              Reports to Portfolio Holder meetings shall be presented by the relevant member of the Executive Management Team (Chief Officer, Corporate Manager, the Human Resources Manager or Principal Solicitor), unless other specific arrangements have been agreed in advance between the Portfolio Holder and officer(s) concerned.

(vii)             Each Portfolio Holder shall maintain, for agreement at each meeting, a Forward Plan identifying all matters relevant to the Portfolio which it is believed are likely to be the subject of consideration and/or decision by the Portfolio Holder, Cabinet, Council, or any other constituent part of the Council. The plan shall be updated as necessary and published on the Council’s website following each meeting; the Portfolio Holder shall be responsible for the content and accuracy of their forward plan.

(viii)           That Portfolio Holder agenda should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 164

Officers are bringing forward proposals for a consistent set of guidelines to govern the operation of Portfolio Holders' meetings. Such a report is timely as, since Portfolio Holder meetings were made public, a number of inconsistencies in process have come to light. At the time of publication of this Agenda, the report had yet to be considered by the Chief Executive therefore, in accordance with Access to Information Rule 23.2, it is in draft form and not suitable for publication. The Democratic Services Manager will attend the meeting to introduce the issues, and every effort will be made to circulate the report to Members beforehand. 

The Democratic Services Manager presented a report which recommended the adoption of operating guidelines for all portfolio holder meetings. It was noted that the report was scheduled to go to Cabinet on 8 May 2008.

It was suggested that as the portfolio holder meetings had only been public for a year, more time should be given to allow them to evolve before introducing new operating guidelines. In response the Democratic Services Manager explained that there would be flexibility in the guidelines, but that the report highlighted inconsistencies which needed to be addressed now.

Discussion of items to be determined by Cabinet or Council

The Committee recommended that the Democratic Services Manager re-word paragraph 9, which recommended that items to be determined by either Cabinet or Council should not normally be discussed at portfolio holder meetings. It was suggested that portfolio holder meetings could be a good forum to discuss these matters and obtain the views of non-executive members.

Frequency of meetings

The Committee considered that the report’s suggestions regarding the frequency of portfolio holder meetings was too restrictive and that greater flexibility was required. It was suggested that quarterly meetings were too infrequent, however it should be left to each portfolio holder to determine whether monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly meetings were most appropriate to them. The Committee agreed that portfolio holders should agree a schedule of meetings for publication at the start of each civic year, and if necessary extra meetings could be added to the schedule should the need arise.

Verbal reports

The Democratic Services Manager explained that under access to information rules reports needed to be published five working days before a public meeting and so verbal reports did not comply with this legislation, therefore they should not be included in portfolio holder meetings.

The Committee endorsed the report, subject to consideration of the above amendments.