Minutes for Standards Committee (replaced by Councillor Conduct Committee ) meeting, Jul 5 2011, 7.30PM official page

To confirm appointment of Lawrence Greenberg as Chairman of the Standards Committee for the 2011/12 Municipal Year, as agreed at Council.

To elect a Vice Chairman for the 2011/12 Municipal Year

The Committee confirmed the appointment of Lawrence Greenberg as Standards Committee Chairman for 2011/12 municipal year, as had been agreed previously at Council.

Eliot Finer was elected Vice Chairman of the Committee. 

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Brett, Murphy, Delman and Rye. 

Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests relating to items on the agenda.  A flowchart is attached for guidance.  

There were no declarations of interest. 

To receive for information the committee’s Terms of Reference. 

The Committee received for information a copy of their terms of reference.

NOTED that the change (the replacement of the word “church” with “faith”), agreed at a meeting of the Committee in July 2010, was still be altered in Council Constitution Standard’s terms of reference. 

AGREED that the reference to church and parent governor representatives would be removed entirely from the following paragraphs in Standard’s Committee terms of reference: Paragraphs – Part 2, 32 (i), (ii), (v) and (vi).

The words “Councillors and Co-opted Members” would replace “Councillors, Co-opted Members and Church and Parent Governor Representatives”. 

To receive and agree the minutes of the last meeting held on 22 April 2011.

1.         Minutes of the meeting held on 22 April 2011.

The Committee agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on 22 April 2011 were a true record, subject to the following amendment to item 969:

Item 969 Chairman’s Update - Noted 5

Eliot Finer’s report on the Council Meeting attended on 26 January 2011. 

AGREED that the revised paragraph would read

“He was impressed by the serious consideration given to each Standard’s item.  Although not a Standards issue, the Council meeting had been extremely long and a disproportionate amount of time was spent on issues over which the Council had little influence.”

2.         Matters arising

The Committee noted that Council had agreed on 30 June 2011 to reduce the number of independent members on the Standard’s Committee from four to three. 

To receive an oral report from the Chairman, highlighting briefly any action taken following the previous meeting of the committee and informing members of any items of note.  

The Committee received an oral report from the Chairman, highlighting actions taken since the last meeting. 

He reported that he: 

• Had met with the monitoring officer to discuss current events

• Attended several council meetings in his role as Committee Chairman

• Had had some involvement in the consultation on the provisions relating to Standards in the Government’s Localism Bill which were discussed later on the agenda.

To receive an update on the current casework being undertaken for the Standards Committee. 

The Chairman reported that three cases had been raised since the last meeting of the committee.

1.         Case 1 Complaint

1.1