Venue: Cabinet Conference Room, Guildhall, Swansea. View directions
Contact: Democratic Services
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Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests PDF 51 KB Minutes: In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City & County
of Swansea, the following interest was declared: 1) Meirion Howells declared a Personal
Interest in Minute 22 “Interview Community / Town Councillors to sit on the
Standards Committee” as both applicants were known to him. Mr Howells withdrew from the meeting prior to
consideration of the item. |
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Annual Meetings with Political Group Leaders PDF 45 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair reminded the Committee of their intention to hold annual
meetings with the Political Group Leaders, Chairs of Committees and the Chief
Executive in order to seek their opinions on the work of the Standards
Committee. Discussions with three
Political Group Leaders were scheduled to take place at the meeting. The themes for discussion which had been circulated in advance was as
follows: 1) What is the role of the Standards Committee? 2) What is the future role of the Standards Committee? 3) How can Political Group Leaders / Committee Chairs promote
standards and good governance through Leadership? 4) How can the Standards Committee become more active in
promoting ethical conduct among Councillors / Co-opted Members? 5) What is your understanding of the Nolan Principles and how
they impact on public life? 6) Are you aware of the Calver decision and do you think that
it’s had an influence on Councillors / Co-opted Members? 7) What are your views on the Authority’s Code of Conduct
training? How could it be improved so as
to raise the ethical standards of Councillors / Co-opted Members? 8) Training for Councillors / Co-opted Members is vitally
important. How can the Standards
Committee tackle those that don’t see training as important? 9) How could Standards Committee encourage the use of the
Authority’s Internal Dispute Resolution Process (Cllr v Cllr)? 10) During the past year, members of the Standards Committee have
attended a number of meetings. Has this
had an impact on behaviour and standards?
What Committees do you feel the Standards Committee members should
attend as observers? The Chair welcomed Councillor Chris Holley to the meeting. Councillor Holley outlined the following in
response: ·
He
felt that the behaviour of Councillors had improved, resulting in the role of
the Standards Committee having changed over the last few years. ·
Councillors
felt there was little point in reporting cases to the Public Services Ombudsman
for Wales. The Standards Committee
should be the arbiter and have more visibility in order to be more productive
in what is happening in the Authority. ·
Councillor
Holley agreed it was useful that members of the Standards Committee had
attended various meetings as observers, however suggested that they should
target their attendance to Council and Planning Committee as they tended to be
the most controversial, particularly
those meetings involved in the LDP process. ·
In
relation to Declarations of Interests, he outlined that members now carry out
block declarations at Committee, however there was still great nervousness
amongst members. ·
He
felt that the Nolan principles had gone beyond what they were originally
intended for. ·
He
was aware of the Calver case and felt it had made a difference. ·
Code
of conduct training provided by the Legal Department was very good and provided
on a regular basis. ·
Agreed
all Senior Salary holders should undertake a personal development review. However, it was more difficult to enforce
non-Senior Salary holders as they had no ‘authority’ to do it. ·
Councillor
Holley encourages members of his group to undertake training, however the Head
of Democratic Services reiterated that under the new framework, Group Leaders
would be informed on a monthly basis of which members had attended training. He went on to clarify that Council had no
authority to impose sanctions for non-attendance. ·
Councillor
Holley had no knowledge of the internal Dispute Resolution Process having been
instigated. The Chair thanked
Councillor Holley for his responses. The Chair then
welcomed Councillor Wendy Fitzgerald to the meeting. ·
Councillor
Fitzgerald was aware of the Standards Committee Annual Report presented to
Council but as an Independent Group they hadn’t had much contact with the
Standards Committee. ·
She
felt there was a certain code of conduct within the group. Disagreements did
arise but they were managed. Robust
political debate would need to be resolved amongst the different political
groups. ·
Confirmed
that the Independent Group had not signed the ‘Swansea Pledge’. ·
In
relation to Calver, she agreed that Councillors had to have a ‘thicker skin’. ·
Councillors
know their own needs in terms of personal development, however Councillors have
various different responsibilities and cannot always attend the scheduled
training events. ·
As
an Independent member she didn’t feel in a position to tell the Independent
Members which training events to attend. ·
Felt
the informal Cllr –v- Cllr resolution is working. ·
She
thought it would be beneficial for members of the Standards Committee to attend
other Committees as observers, in particular Scrutiny meetings to gain an
understanding of how the committee system works. The Chair thanked Councillor Fitzgerald for her views. The Chair then welcomed Councillor Paxton Hood-Williams to the meeting. ·
Councillor
Hood-Williams understanding of the role of the Standards Committee was to
demand high standards of behaviour across Swansea at both Local Authority or
Community Council level and to resolve cases as and when necessary. ·
He
felt that Councillors behaviour had improved over the years in the Chamber. ·
He
agreed that training is essential and that Councillors are regularly provided
with training on the Code of Conduct. ·
Understood
the Calver case and agreed that robust political debate was to be expected. ·
Members
of the Conservative group had excellent attendance at the various training
courses provided by the Authority. ·
Internal
Resolution Process appeared to be working. The Chair thanked
Councillor Paxton Hood-Williams for his comments. |
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Exclusion of the Public. PDF 63 KB Minutes: The Committee was requested to exclude the public from the meeting
during the consideration of the item of business identified in the
recommendation to the report on the grounds that it involves the likely
disclosure of exempt information as set out in the exemption paragraph of 12A
of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to
Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007 relevant to the items of business
as set out in the report. The Committee considered the Public Interest Test in deciding to exclude
the public from the meeting for the item of business where the Public Interest
Test was relevant as set out in the report. RESOLVED that the public be excluded for the following item on the agenda. CLOSED SESSION NOTE: Meirion Howells (Chair),
Councillors Clive Lloyd and Joe Hale withdrew from the meeting prior to the
next item. Jill Burgess (Vice
Chair) presiding. |
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Interview Community / Town Councillors to sit on the Standards Committee. Minutes: The Committee interviewed two candidates for the Community / Town
Councillor vacancy on the Standards Committee. RESOLVED that a report be submitted to Council
recommending PC be appointed to the Standards Committee. |