Signing the minutes

Question

Following a last month council meeting, if the chair and or standing in vicechair refuse to sign the last minutes, can a regular councillor sign them instead providing they were at the council meeting the minutes concerned?

Answer 1

The Chair can't refuse to sign as such.  The Minutes of a meeting must be approved/accepted by the subsequent meeting (as a whole) and the Chair then signs them to confirm they have been agreed.  If for any reason the Chair is unhappy with the resolution, there is a form of words in your standing orders which they can use but they still have to sign.  Why is the Chair refusing?

Comments

Accurate in principle - nonsense in practice.

The chair absolutely CAN decline to sign any document.
What are you gonna do - torture them into signing it?

I can't imagine any other environment where such utter tosh is readily stated and earnestly believed...

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I enjoy our disagreements about processes but now you're just being silly.  So, lets break it down a bit.  No councillor, chair or otherwise, has the power to overturn the majority decision of the council.  So, if council has resolved to accept the minutes as accurate, so be it.  The physical signature simply confirms that at the meeting at which those minutes were accepted, there was a resolution to do so.  As it happens, there is, in most standing orders, a mechanism for the chair to indicate concern over the minutes but the original post implies that this is not being used.  In any event does it matter?  Probably not as the minutes of the later meeting will reflect the decision of the council to accept the minutes whether or not the chair has thrown his or her toys out of the pram and refused to put pen to paper.  No doubt, the recording you are fond of advocating will also reflect this.

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Definitely agree - enjoy the discourse and it is all meant in light heart even when it may seem a bit 'direct.'

My issue was with the assumption that the chair cannot refuse to append their signature.

Well then how would you suppose to compel them if they are disinclined to aquiesce?

I'm happily aware of the widely held - and in my opinion, rather silly - assumption that the signature represents the combined will of the PC - well then the PC should append a certificate of verification rather than the chair.
My signature (and my vote) are mine and mine alone to gift.

I spent 12 months as chair and signed not a single set of minutes.
Was I turned to a pillar of salt?  Was I struck by lightening?  was I clapped in irons?

No, no, and no...

I did facilitate the clerk's termination of contract though....  ):0)



Tis is the point which is ridiculous, must be exposed to sensible discussion and the perpetuation of flawed logic dispelled.