COUNCILLORS ACTING AS CHARITY TRUSTEES

Question

We have a charity which has got itself in a right mess/. Most of the trustees have resigned over the attitude of the two Councillor trustees and are mounting a campaign to restructure the Charity and hence its management committee.  The existing Cllr trustees are appointed  for 4 years  but the constitution provides for  the following  The Parish Council may terminate the services of an appointed member of the Management Committee at any time and appoint another member to serve for the balance of the 4 year term.  

Cllrs are however worried about "unspecified legal action" if they go down that road . If they did do this what possible action could a Councillor take??

Answer 1

None? If you are appointed to a role, you are appointed in accordance with the rules of the appointing body. If you're quoting from the charity's governing document, you'll need to check that this doesn't conflict with anything in the council's standing orders. Confirmation of appointments should be an agenda item at the Annual Meeting each May.

Comments

It's a pity that the trustees resigned. It's much easier to restructure from within.

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I agree Dave. There has been an issue of Cllrs really running the show and making decisions before meetings so much so the majority have simply walked away. When questioned they have come clean and the Council now hs to make a decision. One of the options is removed the Cllrs who are causing the problem  but they seem to backing away citing possible legal action. The wording I quoted is the precise text and seems quite clear to me. PS why can appointments only be confirmed at the Annual meeting

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Appointments can be made at any time, but it is customary to confirm all of the council's administrative arrangements at the Annual Meeting. If you have access to the model standing orders, there's a list of these in 5j and the 21 sub-paragraphs. This should be included in some form in your council's standing orders.

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Got it one assumes that charities comes under external bodies ?