What is the correct way to appoint committee members outside of the AGM?

Question

Our council is a 15 seat council but currently there are only 12 members. We are actively trying to recruit but having little luck. As a result, several of our committees are short on members which has caused a few issues when meetings have not been quorate. The most important committee with vacancies is the finance committee, we have had to call more meetings than I would have liked to agree on the budget because many meetings weren't quorate. We have a Mayor and Dep Mayor who are ex officio, they want to join the finance committee as full members by passing a motion at the next FC meeting. There is nothing in our standing orders around whether ex officio members can also be full members. I spoke with one of our local authority councillors about the vacancies and she said you are not allowed to be a committee member if you are ex officio. Still, if FC passes a motion for them to become actual finance committee members I can't see anything wrong with this. I know they can't vote as ex officio members but what if they want to be full members instead?

Answer 1

The council can choose which councillors can be committee members and this can be done at anytime. The only reason membership is agreed at the May meeting is to ensure it is reviewed at least once a year.

BTW, there is no such thing as an AGM for councils. It's the Annual Parish Council Meeting to give it its formal title.

Answer 2

Ex-officio members hold the same rights as all other members, so they are already entitled to vote. Ex-officio simply means that they hold membership by virtue of another position or role.

Comments

I asked CALC the same question and they said ex officio members cannot vote and have no rights unless they are committee members. Is CALC wrong?

Sorry if my original question wasn't clear. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor aren't members of any committees; they are ex officio, so they can attend any committee they choose to, which is very often. Because they aren't committee members, CALC said they can't vote, as they have to belong to the committee. Are you saying they can vote because you think they are committee members or do you think they can vote even without being committee members? I'm finding it difficult to find an answer to this! Thank you for replying though!

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Yes, I believe that CALC is wrong, a view supported by the NALC, whose guidance states:-

"The membership of a committee is determined by the council, and the chair of a committee may be elected by the committee from among its members or is elected directly by the council when the committee and its members are first appointed. Some councils may want the chair or the vice-chair of the council to be members of a committee by virtue of their office (i.e. ex-officio) rather than because of their nomination and/or selection to a committee, as would be the case with other members of a committee. A council’s standing orders may require ex-officio members to be full voting members of every committee appointed. Alternatively, as suggested in paragraph 9.54 on page 223 of the book ‘Knowles on Local Authority Meetings – A Manual of Law and Practice, 8th edition’, a council’s standing orders may permit ex-officio members to be members of one or more committees but with restricted rights in respect of such committees. Such standing orders could restrict the ex-officio members’ rights to mere attendance of committee meetings. The wording of standing orders must confirm the rights of ex-officio members of a committee if these are different to other members of the committee."

The final sentence suggests that if your standing orders do not restrict the rights of ex-officio members, they have the same rights as everyone else. This is certainly the case for charity trustees and local drainage boards. It is disappointing that the model standing orders do not mention ex-officio appointments, as this would help to clarify the position.

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That is most helpful, thank you. Although a little worrying that CALC didn't know this!