Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: County Hall, Worcester, WR5 2NP

Contact: Simon Lewis  Committee Officer

Items
No. Item

Available papers

The members had before them:

 

A.    The Agenda papers (previously circulated); and

 

B.    The Minutes of the meeting held on 30 April 2014 (previously circulated).

235.

Apologies and Named Substitutes (Agenda item 1)

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mr J Baker, Ms P A Hill and Mr D W Prodger.

236.

Declarations of Interest (Agenda item 2)

Minutes:

None.

237.

Public Participation (Agenda item 3)

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Director of Resources in writing or by e-mail indicating both the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 22 July 2014).  Enquiries about this can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address listed below.

Minutes:

None.

238.

Confirmation of Minutes (Agenda item 4)

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 30 April 2014. (previously circulated – pink pages)

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 30 April 2014 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

239.

Member conduct during meetings (Agenda item 5)

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report on Member conduct during meetings.

 

Following the discussion at the Committee meeting on 30 April, the Head of Legal and Democratic Services had prepared a draft guidance note for all councillors on their proper conduct in meetings.It had been drafted in the light of the comments at the previous Committee meeting and in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of his Committee and the Chairman of the Members' Advisory Group, Mrs L Hodgson.

 

Two of the prime roles of this Committee were to promote and maintain high standards of conduct by County Councillors, and assist Members to observe the Code of Conduct and relevant protocols in place from time to time.  It was open to the Committee to issue general guidance to Members as part of this role. Such guidance would help Members ensure their proper conduct, and allow the public to understand the expectations of Members.

 

The Secretary of State had issued draft Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 to enhance the transparency of local government.   If approved by Parliament, these would require councils to provide reasonable facilities (so far as was practicable) to those attending a meeting for the purpose of reporting on it.  This would enable members of the public and press to report meetings via social media, filming, recording or taking photographs during a public meeting.

 

The Government's draft guidance stated that council permission would not be required for such activities, but reporters should not disrupt the meeting eg through excessive noise, or the use of flash photography.   Standing Orders would need updating once the Regulations were in force.  The Council supported democratic transparency, and many of the Council's formal meetings had been webcast for a number of years, and reporters had been able to tweet and blog as they wished.  However, the Regulations would allow members to be filmed by observers throughout the meeting, not just when speaking.  This just underlined the need for good conduct throughout meetings.

 

In the ensuing debate, the following principal points were raised:

 

·         In setting the tone of the meeting, the Chairman should make particular reference as necessary to not using social media during exempt agenda decision items  

·         The Chairman should advise Members and members of the public/press that all electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops and pagers must be switched to silent or vibrate to avoid disrupting the meeting

·         It was appropriate to permit members to access electronic information which was relevant to the meeting given the possible move in the future to agendas being published in electronic form only. The Head of Legal and Democratic Services commented that some councillors were already accessing agendas at meetings in electronic form

·         Members should ensure that that they were not distracted "or distracting" from decision items requiring their full attention by the use of social media

·         There was a danger that a Member could tweet comments during a meeting about his/her dissatisfaction with a decision in such a manner that could lead to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 239.