Agenda item

6.1       Revisions to the Constitution

REVISIONS TO THE CONSTITUTION

A report of the Monitoring Officer was considered which gave details of suggested amendments to the Constitution.

Moved by the City Mayor, seconded by the Councillor Westley and carried:-

8.         That Council:

1)                 Agree the new Contract Procedures Rules (CPR) comprising Part 4G of the Constitution and attached as Appendix 1 with the following amendments

Insertion of a new text at 19.2 to read “The Executive will receive bi-annual monitoring reports of all Waiver activity undertaken pursuant to section 24 of these Rules and all Contract Extensions undertaken pursuant to sections 60.5 and 60.6 of these Rules.”

Insertion of a new section 19.1.6 to read “The Bi-annual monitoring reports prepared under section 19.2 below”

2)                 Agree the associated amendments to Part 3 of the Finance Procedure Rules (FPR) at Part 4F of the Constitution and attached as Appendix 2;

3)                 Agree a revision to Article 6 (Part 2, Key Decisions) as follows;

“In the case of one off or capital expenditure, spending of over £1m is to be committed on a scheme except where:

(i)            The scheme has been specifically approved by Council; or

(ii)           The scheme is not a city council sponsored scheme, is not to take place within the City boundary (unless sponsored wholly by another public body)   and constitutes city council expenditure solely by virtue of the council receiving and disbursing external grant (including accountable body arrangements).”

4)                 Agree changes to the Terms of Reference for Employee’s Committee as set out in Appendix 3 of the report;

5)                 Agree the changes to the functions of the Licensing Sub Committees as set out in Appendix 4 of the report;

6)                 Agree a change to the Terms of Reference of the Health & Well Being Board to take account of its responsibilities in relation to the Better Care Fund, as per paragraph 3.15 in the report;

7)                 Agree changes to the Officer Employment Procedure Rules found in Part 4I of the Constitution, as set out in Appendix 5 of the report, such as to ensure compliance with the new statutory dismissal procedures for the Head of Paid Service; Chief Finance Officer and Monitoring Officer

8)                 To agree the changes, set out in Appendix 6 of the report, to the Good Practice Guidance for Member involvement in Planning and Development Control decisions found in Part 5 of the Constitution with the following amendments:

(i) that paragraph 6.8 shall be moved to section 8 of the Guidance and be included as a new paragraph 8.7

(ii) that a new paragraph 8.8 be added to say “Where an Elected Member makes representations or contact on a planning application (whether orally or in writing) which is to be decided either by Committee or by Officers, that Elected Member shall always make it known that they are a Member of the Council. If the purpose of the representation/contact is to articulate a view in a personal capacity they shall identify themselves as a Member, but go on to make it clear that they are writing in a personal (i.e. non-Council) capacity.

9)                 To note an amendment to Rule 18 of Part 4B (Access to Information Procedure Rules) which requires the publication of a wide range of “officer decisions” under new statutory provisions relating to openness and transparency.