APPOINTMENT TO COMMITTES

Question

Is there any latitude on the appointment to committees.  A year ago, we had an arrangement re numbers which stipulated a minimum number of members .  This worked well as any Cllr could join any committee. Then along came a Locum and changed it all to maximum numbers.   That sounded reasonable until it was discovered the terms of reference for the Finance committee gave places to the Chairs and Vice Chairs of all the other committees (plus a few others) so much so there were very few spare slots for other Councillors. This coincided with the appointment of 5 Co-optees but no vacancies on any committees!!  So it appears that S101 gives total and absolute control to the Full Council to approve all Committee appointments. Does the committee have any rights itself or does it have to go back to the Full Council and rescind the original resolution if it wants changes

 Also do non Councillors count as members

Answer 1

Just raise motion to change the SOs then.
The council decides its processes not the locum clerk.
The trouble with the system you describe (which is non uncommon BTW) is that absolute power becomes invested in the same little cabal.
I have the opposite problem - finance and estates committees collapsed several years ago and nobody will step up to the plate to chair or commit to them.
Personally, I don’t have a massive issue with that (especially given the history of inactivity & incompetence amongst the committees) so now I am starting to delegate specific tasks to specific Cllrs - there may well be a howl of “no individual…..  blah, blah, blah…” but when the whole group doesn’t function because certain elements prevent any realistic progress, what alternative is there?  They are volunteers after all….

Answer 2

The committee has to go back to full council to change the TOR but a locum clerk cannot change them.  If this was done by a decree of the locum it was unlawful. Cllrs who call for 18 months minimum service overlook the fact that a newbie cllr may have experience chairing meetings and on the kinds of subjects their committee deals with, so imho that should be opposed. Non councillors can be appointed to committees but have no voting rights except for a very few instances which I think are in Local Government and Housing Act 1989