Changing the names of committees to porfolios to avoid public scrutiny.

Question

Godmanchester Town Council changed the names of all their committees (apart from Personnel) to Porfolios several years ago. No info on dates of meetings or minutes are on their web site. Councillors are appointed and not voted onto membership. No public access. All meet in secret but still make recommendations on policies. in the same way as committees.

One Portfolio has been responsible for making recommendations on the uses of C. £1.5M of the CIL transferred to the town from our District Council who have advised me that it is entirely up,to the town council how this is spent.

I have been subjected to two vexatious complaints for asking questions about the CIL uses.

Has anyone else heard of a council behaving in this un-democratic way?

Answer 1

What is a porfolios? I know of PC's that use working parties and task and finish groups specifically to avoid the requirements of a committee ( same as a PC meeting with openness to public and recording and notice of agendas of meetings and minutes.

Comments

Maybe they are trying to run a 'cabinet' system like a district council. Many years ago our PC tried that until I made a fuss and it stopped.

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This is what has happened. We have a long standing very 'dominant' town and district councillor and our annually appointed portfolios replaced committees about ten years ago.
This has now come to a head because the Town Clerk has stated in response to a FOI request that the proceedings of the Business Portfolio at which the uses of the Town's 25% CIL share are discussed 'are not in the public domain and will therefore not be disclosed. Share receipts to date just over £1.7M.

Answer 2

My PC was upset because they didn’t like the public knowing what a working party was discussing so they claimed that they didn’t take minutes!
Do the portfolio groups make decisions or do they make recommendations?

Do they have terms of reference?

Are their recommendations available for the public to see ?

Answer 3

I too am making the assumption that the term "portfolio" actually refers to working groups or task and finish groups which are not uncommon.  The main difference between a working group and a committee is one of transparency as working group meetings don't have to be held in public and nor are they required to publish agendas or minutes.  However, they cannot make decisions on behalf of the council but can make recommendations.  They can be useful in undertaking background work, for example, on a proposal but in my experience can go off topic a bit unless there are clear terms of reference.  The important point is that they can never make decisions or commit expenditure and must report back to the body that set them up (whether a committee or full council) with their findings/recommendations which is where the public scrutiny can take place.

Comments

Completely agree, in my experience decisions are often made based on inadequate information often based on the Clerks personal opinion with little or no chance for Councillors to properly consider the matter
On my particular Council legal advice was withheld from Councillors on the grounds that it was confidential even though it did not relate to an individual
They’ve now fallen flat on their faces after committing time and money to a project which has collapsed because of inadequate scrutiny

Answer 4

Who made the vexatious complaints?  If they were from Cllrs I would complain about them to the District Council monitoring officer.  Who "appointed" Cllrs to these "portfolios"?  The appointments constitute decisions which are resolutions that should be minuted.  Otherwise the appointments are unlawful.

Comments

The Monitoring Officer has recently refused to deal with a complaint against a town councillor even though the TC's complaints procedure states that the MO is responsible I have lodged a complaint against the MO with the L/A Ombudsman.
Our TC's Portfolios are not 'working groups' because they are responsible for considering, for example, all financial matters concerning the uses of the CIL  in the case of the Business Portfolio. There are also Planning, Transport and Environment Portfolios. Dates of their meetings, agendas and minutes are never published.
I recently submitted a FOI request for minutes of the meetings of the Business Portfolio at which uses of the town's 25% CIL share were discussed. Total so far approx. £1.7M since 2017. The Town Clerk has refused on the grounds that this information 'is not in the public domain' and would not be disclosed'.
The stated vision of our Neighbourhood Plan is 'To make our roads safer and encourage walking and cycling' yet whenever I ask for some of the Town's 25% share of the CIL to be used for this purpose the TC record a vexatious complaint against me.. Three so far.
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You have taken the right course of action by referring the DC Monitoring Officer to the LGO.  It is too late this year, but I would also inform your external auditor about what has been going on at the appropriate time next year around the time when the Council AGAR is submitted to them.  If the Clerk has refused your FOI, then a complaint to the Office of the Information Commissoner is advised too. The infromation should be in the Public Domain, and it doesn't follow that because it isn't, that there is a valid exemption under the FOI act 2000 to withold it.

Answer 5

Your standing orders say that the Council (i.e. all the Councillors) shall at your Annual Meeting of the Town Council, following the election of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Council at the
annual meeting, shall include  shall "Review/appointment to working party groups and portfolios who will appoint a chair following their first group meeting."  So your Council is has breached it's Standing Orders, a matter that should be referred to the external auditor.

Answer 6

I have looked at the Godmanchester TC website. It contains a list of all payments over £500 from 2023 onwards.  There is a detailed CIL statement of account (although its for year ended March 2022).  The latest AGAR is listed.   Does that help?