Agenda item

The Council had before it a report by the Director of Commissioning which summarised the annual review of the Scheme of Governance and made recommendations for improvement.

 

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           approve Appendix C, Committee Terms of Reference, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(b)           approve Appendix D, Powers Delegated to Officers, with effect from 19 June 2023, and delegate authority to the Interim Chief Officer - Governance (Assurance) to make any further changes to Appendix 1 of that document necessary to reflect such approval;

(c)           approve Appendix E, Standing Orders for Council, Committee and Sub Committee Meetings, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(d)           approve Appendix F, Financial Regulations, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(e)           approve Appendix G, Procurement Regulations, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(f)             approve Appendix H, Member Officer Relations Protocol, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(g)           note that there were no changes to the Local Code of Corporate Governance;

(h)           note the minutes of the Governance Reference Group of 27 April, 9 May and 1 June 2023;

(i)             approve Appendix I, the Budget Protocol, with immediate effect, and instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to carry out a formal review of the Protocol following approval of the Council’s budget for 2024/25, and report back to Council on any lessons learned;

(j)             instruct the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to review the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) template and related process and make any changes necessary, and thereafter arrange training for officers and elected members, including a focus on giving due regard to protected characteristics;

(k)           instruct the Interim Chief Officer - Governance (Assurance) to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, make all other amendments to the Scheme of Governance necessary to reflect the decisions taken by the Council at this meeting in relation to this report; and also instruct that Chief Officer to review the use of the term “customer” within the Scheme of Governance and, in that regard, make changes to that Scheme as appropriate;

(l)             note the resignations referred to in paragraph 6.1 and appoint a Convener of the Planning Development Management Committee and Vice Convener of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee with immediate effect;

(m)         appoint an Older People’s Champion; and

(n)           agree to cease membership of KIMO UK, and by extension KIMO International, at the end of this financial year in line with paragraphs 7.2 and 7.3 of the report.

 

Councillor Radley moved, seconded by Councillor Greig:-

          That Council -

(i)         approve Appendix C, Committee Terms of Reference, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(ii)        approve Appendix D, Powers Delegated to Officers, with effect from 19 June 2023, and delegate authority to the Interim Chief Officer - Governance (Assurance) to make any further changes to Appendix 1 of that document necessary to reflect such approval;

(iii)       approve Appendix E, Standing Orders for Council, Committee and Sub Committee Meetings, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(iv)      approve Appendix F, Financial Regulations, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(v)        approve Appendix G, Procurement Regulations, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(vi)      approve Appendix H, Member Officer Relations Protocol, with effect from 19 June 2023, subject to incorporating the feedback from Councillor Boulton;

(vii)     note that there were no changes to the Local Code of Corporate Governance;

(viii)    note the minutes of the Governance Reference Group of 27 April, 9 May and 1 June 2023;

(ix)      subject to (x) below, approve Appendix I, the Budget Protocol, with immediate effect, and instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to carry out a formal review of the Protocol following approval of the Council’s budget for 2024/25, and report back to Council on any lessons learned;

(x)        replace paragraph 9 of the Budget Protocol with: “Each elected member group will submit their balanced budget to the Council’s Chief Officer - Finance (also referred to as the section 95 Officer) for the following financial year (plus 4 years should they determine that is their position) with finalised proposals submitted to the S95 Officer by 12 noon on the third working day before the budget meeting”;

(xi)      instruct the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to review the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) template and related processes and make any changes necessary, and thereafter arrange training for officers and elected members, including a focus on giving due regard to protected characteristics;

(xii)     instruct the Interim Chief Officer - Governance (Assurance) to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, make all other amendments to the Scheme of Governance necessary to reflect the decisions taken by the Council at this meeting in relation to the report; and also to instruct that Chief Officer to review the use of the term “customer” within the Scheme of Governance and, in that regard, make changes to that Scheme as appropriate;

(xiii)    agree that Co-Leaders may request to be included within the distribution list for report consultations, and to amend Standing Order 13.2.6 accordingly;

(xiv)   note the resignations referred to in paragraph 6.1 and appoint Councillor McRae as Convener of the Planning Development Management Committee and Councillor Henrickson as Vice Convener of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee with immediate effect;

(xv)     appoint Councillor Malik as Convener of the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee in place of Councillor Crockett with effect from 28 June 2023;

(xvi)   appoint the Lord Provost as Older People’s Champion and Councillor MacGregor as In Bloom Champion; and

(xvii)  agree to cease membership of KIMO UK, and by extension KIMO International, at the end of this financial year in line with paragraphs 7.2 and 7.3 of the report.

 

Councillor Malik moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Blake:-

          That the Council -

(1)       approve Appendix C, Committee Terms of Reference, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(2)       approve Appendix D, Powers Delegated to Officers, as amended with effect from 19 June 2023, and delegate authority to the Interim Chief Officer - Governance (Assurance) to make any further changes to Appendix 1 of that document necessary to reflect such approval.

(3)       approve Appendix E, Standing Orders for Council, Committee and Sub Committee Meetings as amended with effect from 19 June 2023;

(4)       approve Appendix F, Financial Regulations, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(5)       approve Appendix G, Procurement Regulations, with effect from 19 June 2023;

(6)       approve Appendix H, Member Officer Relations Protocol with effect from 19 June 2023;

(7)       note there are no changes to the Local Code of Corporate Governance;

(8)       note the minutes of the Governance Reference Group of 27 April, 9 May and 1 June 2023;

(9)       approve Appendix I, the Budget Protocol as amended, with immediate effect, and instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to carry out a formal review of the Protocol following approval of the Council’s budget for 2024/25, and report back to Council on any lessons learned;

(10)    instruct the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to review the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) template and related process and make any changes necessary, and thereafter arrange training for officers and elected members, including a focus on giving due regard to protected characteristics;

(11)    instruct the Interim Chief Officer - Governance (Assurance) to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, make all other amendments to the Scheme of Governance necessary to reflect the decisions taken by the Council at this meeting in relation to the report; note the term “customer” has been referred to at least 46 times in the Scheme of Governance and as such the Council should continue to use the word “customer” when dealing with members of the public;

(12)    note the resignations referred to in paragraph 6.1 and appoint a Convener of the Planning Development Management Committee and Vice Convener of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee with immediate effect, and agree to appoint Councillor Malik as Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee Convener from 28 June 2023;

(13)    appoint an Older People’s Champion; and

(14)    agree to note the importance of KIMO UK, noting Aberdeen City Council was a founder member. Agree if the Council really cares about marine environmental issues, it will continue its membership and continue to lobby UK and Scottish Government on the importance of litter within our oceans.

 

Proposed changes to the Scheme of Governance:-

 

Powers Delegated to Officers

 

Change on page 55 to remove reference to Co-Leaders

 

Standing Orders

 

12.6.2   The terms of the motion would, in the opinion of the Monitoring Officer (S5 officer) be likely to result in a breach of law.

 

24.2    To promote the effective management of the meeting, Members should seek clarification or advice on any points from officers.

 

29.11  A motion or amendment is incompetent if its terms would, in the opinion of the Monitoring Officer (S5 Officer), be likely to result in a breach in law.

 

Member Officer Relations Protocol

 

2.3      Where a member or officer has a concern relating to observation of the protocol, they should seek advice in the first instance from the Monitoring Officer. The Monitoring Officer will support Group Leaders, those with no Group Leader and line managers to…

 

3.7      Add in - Members and Officers will note the obligations placed upon them by the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000.

 

Budget Protocol

 

9.       Each elected member group shall submit their budget to the Council’s Chief Officer - Finance (also referred to as the section 95 Officer) for the following financial year (plus 4 years should they determine that is their position) within three days of the relevant report being published.

 

Additional as part of Budget Protocol to mirror obligations on Councillors

 

10.      Officers must within their proposed budget recommendations give elected members confirmation that due regard has been given to the Public Sector Equality Duty; and

11.      Officers must within their proposed budget recommendations give elected members confirmation that consideration has been given to the Integrated Impact Assessments.

 

During the course of debate, Councillor Hutchison advised that he had a connection by virtue of his employment by Kevin Stewart MSP, however having considered the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

 

On a division, there voted:-

 

For the motion  (30)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Boulton, Bouse, Brooks, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Cross, Davidson, Fairfull, Farquhar, Greig, Henrickson, Houghton, Hutchison, MacGregor, McLellan, McLeod, McRae, Massey, Mennie, Nicoll, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

 

For the amendment  (12)  - Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Crockett, Graham, Grant, Lawrence, Macdonald, Malik, Thomson, Tissera and Watson.

 

The Council resolved:-

to adopt the motion.