Point missing from minutes

Question

Hello, as a new councillor, I have a question.

During our recent parish meeting, I raised an issue regarding the contact details in our newsletter. The clerk's contact information is currently listed as "To Be Confirmed (TBC)." Our current clerk is departing soon and has been utilizing a private email address for council business, despite the availability of *Emails are not allowed*. However, I've been informed that this email is not functional. Additionally, the same email address, *Emails are not allowed*, is listed as the contact details on our parish website.

I proposed that "TBC" should not be published as the clerk's contact details. Instead, we should utilize *Emails are not allowed*. I suggested that we address this issue during the transition period between clerks. The Chair agreed, and we decided to include an agenda item for our next meeting to discuss email accounts for councillors, the chair, and the clerk.

However, when the minutes were drafted for approval at the subsequent meeting, I noticed that my point was not included, nor was there an agenda item for the discussion of email accounts. Upon reaching out to the clerk to address the missing agenda point and the absence of mention of my concerns regarding "TBC," I found that the clerk was unwilling to address my concerns. Their only suggestion was to delay until the new clerk assumed their post.

As someone relatively new to this role, I'm uncertain about how to proceed. I firmly believe that the clerk, at the very least, should refrain from using a private email account for several reasons.

Answer 1

Just to be clear, are you saying the private email address is one specific to your current clerk or one which is clearly a council address albeit that it might not be a .gov type email address?
It has been recommended practice for some years now that a separate email address is used for council business and that this be a .gov email address.  However many councils still use something like gmail or hotmail albeit that the address is clearly a council address.  The email account can then be transferred to  your new clerk so that he/she can address the other issues.  A private email address which is not or cannot be transferred to your new clerk presents all sorts of issues such as tracing past messages, GDPR and subject access request data.   I suggest moving forward your new clerk addresses this as a matter of urgency.

Comments

Hi Delboy'swife,

Thank you for your response. The email address in question is the clerk's personal email address, which has been used for council business for some time now. I have made attempts to persuade the clerk that this issue needs to be addressed, as you outlined.

I did manage to raise this concern during the council's last meeting when discussing contact details. The clerk's contact information was listed as "To Be Confirmed (TBC)" in our upcoming newsletter release. The chair acknowledged that this matter needs attention and requested an agenda item for our next meeting.

A few weeks later, I received the agenda for our upcoming meeting along with the minutes from our last meeting to be approved. However, the minutes did not mention the need to resolve the clerk's email address, nor was there any agenda point in our next meeting to discuss this issue as requested by the chair.

I have emailed the clerk to inform them that the minutes do not reflect the point I raised, and the agenda for the upcoming meeting does not include a discussion on email accounts for councillors as requested by the chair.

As the next meeting will be only my second, I am unsure of how to address this matter without appearing difficult to our outgoing clerk.

Answer 2

Hi, first of all it's good that you are doing this. You might find some people who argue that "small things" aren't important but like Deloby said it is important.

If you know who the new clerk is, I would contact them yourself. I think the new clerk would have an easier time extracting any necessary handover information than you might have questioning the old clerk in a public meeting.

There should be an item near the beginning of each council meeting to approve the minutes of the previous one. If there's stuff missing in the minutes, you need to speak up at this point and say how the minutes differ from the reality of the meeting.