Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3 - Wallasey Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Andrew Mossop  Principal Committee Officer

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Chair and Vice-Chair

The Committee is requested to appoint a Chair and Vice-Chair.

Minutes:

The Director of Governance and Assurance opened the meeting and invited nominations for the Chair.

 

On a motion by Councillor Anita Leech, seconded by Councillor Janette Williamson, it was –

 

Resolved (unanimously) – That Councillor Adrian Jones be appointed Chair of this Committee for the current municipal year.

 

The Chair then invited nominations for Vice-Chair.

 

It was moved by Councillor Mike Collins and seconded by Councillor Jenny Johnson, that –

 

“Councillor Lesley Rennie be appointed Vice-Chair of this Committee.”

 

It was then moved by Councillor Chris Jones and seconded by Councillor Janette Williamson, that –

 

“Councillor Pat Hackett be appointed Vice-Chair of this Committee.”

 

The first motion was put and carried (5:4) (One abstention). It was therefore –

 

Resolved (5:4) (One abstention) – That Councillor Lesley Rennie be appointed Vice-Chair of this Committee for the current municipal year.

 

2.

Members' Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary and / or any other relevant interest in connection with any of the items on this agenda and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the interest.

Minutes:

Members of the Committee were requested to declare whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in the item on this agenda and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of such interest.

 

Councillor Jeff Green declared a personal interest in that prior to his own retirement he used to work for Mr Paul Satoor in his previous employment.

 

3.

Appointment of Head of Paid Service pdf icon PDF 100 KB

Minutes:

The Director of Governance and Assurance, Philip McCourt, introduced a report on the options to appoint to the role of Head of Paid Service following the resignation of Mr Eric Robinson.

 

In introducing his report the Director of Governance and Assurance apologised to the Committee that the report had not been made exempt prior to its publication, in accordance with the Council’s Standing Order No. 14, ‘Motions affecting persons employed by the Council’. He stated that he had apologised to the officers concerned. He suggested that if at any point during the meeting Members wished to go into exempt discussion then he would invite Members to do so.

 

Councillor Jeff Green expressed the view that the members of the Committee had been put in an invidious position because the Chief Executive had circulated an email to all staff with a date of when he was leaving and that Mr Paul Satoor would be taking over. Whilst he did believe that the report should be discussed in public to be open and transparent, he considered that it was disrespectful to the committee to have done that.

 

Councillor Lesley Rennie expressed the view that it was unfortunate to have got off on the wrong foot at the start of a new municipal year and asked what consultation had been undertaken by the Chief Executive before the Executive View email was sent to all staff.

 

Councillor Janette Williamson expressed the view that what had happened had been a mistake but that she didn’t feel disrespected as a Committee Member by it.

 

The Director of Governance and Assurance reiterated his apology to the Committee, accepted that full accountability in respect of this matter sat with him, and stated that measures would be put in place to ensure it did not happen again.

 

The Director of Change and Organisational Design, Mrs Nikki Boardman, assured the Committee that all Political Group Leaders had received an apology.

 

Members agreed to accept the apologies that had been given.

 

The Director of Governance and Assurance suggested that the four recommendations within the report could be taken in turn with a debate on each.

 

With regard to the first recommendation the Director of Governance and Assurance went through the timeline of Mr Robinson’s resignation. Mr Robinson had been informed on the morning of 28 May, 2019 that the Secretary of State would be making an announcement in respect of his appointment (the press release being made on 29 May, 2019). Discussions were held with the Leader and Mr Robinson had requested that he be allowed to leave with 2 months’ notice taking account of 11 days annual leave remaining.

 

Councillor Pat Hackett informed the meeting that the Chief Executive had spoken to him in his role as the Council’s Leader on 29 May and explained his offer of a new opportunity with the Disclosure and Barring Service and that he had accepted his resignation. A conversation had taken place over leaving dates and he had made a judgement call  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.