Can an illegal vote to recommend at a committee then be made legal by ratifying at full council ?

Question

At a committee meeting we voted to accept a recommendation on an important item that wasn't on the agenda, but no-one picked up on that fact i.e. not 3 days notice.  That recommendation then went to full council where the alleged illegality of the vote was mentioned. The clerk (who didn't chair the committee meeting) said it should have been picked up there not afterwards. Fair enough, but if that recommended had then been accepted at full council would that make it legal after all?

Answer 1

If the recommendation was on the agenda for the full council meeting and full council resolved to approve it, in my view that resolution is by default legal. The only question would be how the wording of the full council agenda item was expressed.   If it said "To approve item X which was previously on  the Acme Committee meeting agenda & approved by them", then that might be illegal

Comments

Thank you. It was as per your last sentence, but 'might' be or 'is' illegal is really the question.

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Then full Council would be seeking to resolve to approve an agenda item described with a factually inaccurate information. If they did, that would arguably at least be a breach of the code of conduct.

Answer 2

If the subject of the recommendation falls within the delegated authority of the committee, the correct way to resolve this would be for the item to be added to the next agenda of the committee. Once a council has delegated part of its powers, it shouldn't exercise those powers.

I'm pleased to note that the Clerk didn't chair the committee meeting!

Comments

Thank you. The committee doesn't have delegated powers. At the full council meeting I raised the issue. The clerk simply said it should have been resolved at the committee and seemed reluctant to directly answer my question though.
So now, given that the full council voted against the committee recommendation, can the question come back to either the committee or the full council in the next six months?

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If the committee has no delegated powers, the fact that it made a recommendation on an item not included on the agenda is of no consequence. So if the council voted against the recommendation, unless new information comes to light that might result in a different course of action, you should wait six months before re-considering.