Committee member not attending but sending opinions by email.

Question

This has not happened to me before so not sure if any legislation covers it.

We have a Governance Committee meeting this evening, I am the Chair.  One of the members has sent apologies as not able to attend, to me and the clerk. But he has also sent all his opinions on the 2 agenda items and obviously expects me and/or the clerk to raise them at the meeting. I vaguely remember seeing somewhere that if you wish to express your opinion you have to do so in person, but may be wrong.

I doesn't help that some of his opinions conflict with some of mine!  So I really don't want to promote them but would be happier if I knew there was legislation along the lines of 'you have to be there'.

Answer 1

In order to vote on any resolution, a councillor can only do so in person at a meeting and whilst I do not think there's any legislation saying that you cannot ask someone else to put forward your views if you're not in attendance, neither is there any that says you can!  In the interests of fairness, if it were me I'd include comment to the effect that there are other views but it is your personal choice.  The councillor should find their own champion if they're unable to attend.

Comments

Thank you Delboy'sWife. This does seem a fair compromise.

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This is only the case in England, in Wales members are permitted to cast votes remotely.

Answer 2

I would treat this as an item of correspondence which, after all, is what it is.

Answer 3

Break it down to basics….

Politics, even at the first tier, is about establishing your representative view and presenting as compelling a case in support of that view as is possible or not if you don’t really have a view one way or the other
There is absolutely zero moral, legislative or logical compulsion on anyone to promote someone else’s POV - especially where it conflicts with your own.

Answer 4

A Councillor is elected to give input and opinions. Not liking the methods he or she uses is not a reason to dismiss their input. there may come a time when you may need to do the same on an important subject.

Comments

Thank you for your comment, an interesting one. In my 6 years as a councillor I have only missed approx 4 meetings, that includes committees.  But it has never occurred to me to ask someone to take my views to those meetings. Food for thought.