We have passed many projects last year starting from June which the clerk still has not acted on

Question

Is it normal for clerks to take so long in a meeting l ask this question and I was told by one councillor I was picking on the . Surely we should be able to find on why the clerk is no doing there job

Answer 1

You have not provided enough information for anyone to give an informed view or answer.

How many hours a week is the clerk employed for?  Do you have any other staff?

Is the project to purchase a litter bin or to build a sports centre??

Is the project fully funded by council reserves or are you expecting the clerk to obtain grants?

Comments

We have two clerks one of the projects is to purchase two trees,to plant in the playing field, another project purchase a new goal post for the playing field, another project to get quotes to repair the car park , we have the funds already the car park is to be paid for out of cil money  one clerk works 30hr a week the anther 16 hours

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What is the size of your council?  What services do you provide and what other responsibilities do your staff have?  When you say projects have been agreed have alternative quotes already been obtained (it does take a long time to get quotes these days!) and are additional permissions required for any of the identified projects which might be delaying things?  Perhaps you should suggest your clerk provides an update of the outstanding projects at each meeting as a "clerk's report".

Answer 2

Based on the various questions you have posed previously from afar is it fair to say your relationship with your officers is pretty strained. Are these projects that you have personally championed? (not that it should matter)? I just wonder whether anything you can do to help reset the relationship as seem to have a pretty combartive relationship with officers which from my own personal experience not conducive to getting things done and moving forward. I cleared the air once and never looked back. Its hard to say from afar whether that would be fruitful or fantasy given your own circumstances you have previously detailed. That been said id argue what have you got to loose new year perhaps try and fresh approach and try and start again.

Answer 3

It sounds to me that the clerk is not the only one who is not doing their job!

Answer 4

Notwithstanding the scant details provided it should be a matter of course that jobs requested of the clerk should require that a progress report be submitted as an agenda item to councillors at subsequent meetings until the project is completed. Even if it is "still awaiting quotes"

Comments

We do have an item clerks report but there is never a progress report on jobs which have been resolved by council for the clerk todo it’s almost like the clerk for gets a lot of items that has been resolved by council. When it was brought up at the last meeting that a lot of  resolved item have not be completed a councillor was accused of criticising the clerk

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Well the clerk is the employee of the council and this matter should be resolved at clerk periodical assessments by the employment committee

Answer 5

Had the same problem but on a larger scale it’s far to complicated to go into here but in the end a long list was produced which Councillors aren’t allowed to discuss at meetings
Also it’s claimed the public can’t see it even though it consists of motions passed in public as it relates to the Clerks employment
It’s all down to weak Councillors and poor handling of resolutions

Answer 6

One of the things we introduced some time ago is that whenever a project is proposed (large or small) a quite detailed project assessment is required before a final decision is taken.  The assessment looks at what would be required to deliver the project (costs, permissions, staff time, etc.) as well as identifying benefits, risks etc.  Not exactly rocket science but something that our parish hadn't done formally before.  It concentrates the mind about what steps are necessary to deliver the project and what the risks are (e.g. difficulty in getting contractors or need to obtain County Council approvals for example) so that expectations are realistic and necessary resources are appropriately allocated; staff and councillor time in particular.  Once agreed, at every meeting there is a report on progress (can be a simple "nothing much achieve this month") which is made by the clerk usually but we also allocate a lead councillor to oversee any larger project who may deliver that report.