Tag: Cllr Steve Foulkes

Employment & Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 23/11/2011 Part 1, Declarations of Interest, Minutes

Present: Cllr Jeff Green Cllr Lesley Rennie Cllr Peter Kearney Cllr Mark Johnston Cllr Paul Hayes Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) Cllr George Davies Cllr Steve Foulkes Cllr Phil Davies Officers present: Chris Hyams Andrew Mossop (Committee Clerk) Tony Williams Kevin Adderley Others Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) said “Good evening” and asked for declarations of interest. … Continue reading “Employment & Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 23/11/2011 Part 1, Declarations of Interest, Minutes”

Present:
Cllr Jeff Green
Cllr Lesley Rennie
Cllr Peter Kearney
Cllr Mark Johnston
Cllr Paul Hayes
Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair)
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Steve Foulkes
Cllr Phil Davies

Officers present:
Chris Hyams
Andrew Mossop (Committee Clerk)
Tony Williams
Kevin Adderley
Others

Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) said “Good evening” and asked for declarations of interest. Cllr Steve Foulkes declared a personal interest in item 8 (Appeals Sub-Committee Minutes) as the solicitor named was known to him.

Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) moved the meeting on to the minutes of the meetings held on the 29th September 2011 and the 13th October 2011.

Cllr Jeff Green asked a question about page eight of the minutes in respect of the interim management arrangements. He asked for an update about “where we are”? He asked about the arrangements for the Policy Unit, which he had not been contacted about.

Chris Hyams updated Cllr Green on where the process was up to. However she said any discussion would affect staff in the room but they were completing the procurement process. She said the Policy Unit was the remit of the Corporate Governance Cabinet Committee.

Cllr Foulkes said it was one of the Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOE).

Cllr Jeff Green said he was conscious that everything was sequential, but could it be done in tandem? Did the procurement exercise have to be finished?

Chris Hyams said it absolutely had to finish and that was the intention, to meet the timescale.

Cllr Jeff Green said from the 29th September they were getting to the end of November, and asked if it would take a further six months?

Corporate Governance Committee 16/11/2011 (Wirral Council) Part 3 Work Program, Progress and Associated Issues

Cllr Steve Foulkes said that the terms of reference for [this] committee were clear and he would like to “make progress” and move onto item 3.

Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive referred to the ten key lines of enquiry (KLOE) as well as further discussion on the involvement of councillors. He said the report sets out who the lead officers are. He said he would pause to check the names of the officers were in line with the committee’s wishes.

Cllr Jeff Green said he was “surprised”. He referred to an email and said that the briefing looked like predetermination. He said the changes to the procurement rules were “not fantastic” and that he had had no time to read them. He continued by saying that Conservative Party councillors had spoken to him with suggestions and that he was not clear about the role of Lead Members. Cllr Green went into detail explaining his views on what Lead Members should be. He also said that the briefing was “not well handled”.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said that this had stemmed from a criticism that councillor involvement had not been enough, so key members had been established at the briefing. He said these lead members would be the conduit or champion and that it was the job of these to reflect views back. He explained that it wouldn’t be anything more than that. On accountability, he said councillors say it’s officer’s job, “just letting officers do it”, however he wanted to “get councillors involved at every level”. He appealed to councillors and referred to a letter from Cllr Phil Gilchrist about scrutiny.

Corporate Governance Committee 16/11/2011 (Wirral Council) Part 2 Work Program, Progress and Associated Issues

The committee considered item 3 Work Program, Progress and Associated Issues.

However Cllr Jeff Green went back to agenda item 2 (Minutes). He said as part of the minutes, the list of committee meetings was not agreed.

Bill Norman said there had been some confusion in the briefing. There had been discussion with each political group’s officers. The briefing had been done before the agenda [for this meeting] was finalised, so the schedule in Appendix 8 was different to the list. The minutes [of the meeting held on the 26th October 2011] reflected the previous list and he noted the revision.

Cllr Jeff Green said that they had been told he couldn’t make it and that his non-availability had been made known.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said there was no set of dates they could all attend.

Bill Norman said about the confusion in the briefings, they had tried to find out everyone’s availability but timescales were stretched. He apologised for the confusion.

Cllr Steve Foulkes joked that he wouldn’t do Christmas Day, but he would “do Boxing Day”.

Cllr Tom Harney said that the primary aim of this committee was not discussions, there were major decisions of Cabinet and they had to make some progress and look at it as if they were a statutory committee.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said they needed to make decisions, not make recommendations to Cabinet.

Jim Wilkie mentioned that because of Wirral Council’s constitution some decisions had to made by a meeting of all councillors.

Cllr Tom Harney said that they needed to look at how to alter decision-making.

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 16th November 2011 Part 1, Declarations of Interest, Minutes

Corporate Governance Committee

Chair (Cllr Steve Foulkes)
Cllr Phil Davies
Cllr Adrian Jones
Cllr Anne McArdle
Cllr Ann McLachlan

In attendance (right to speak, not to vote or make decisions)
Cllr Jeff Green
Cllr Tom Harney

Officers
Ian Coleman, Director of Finance/Deputy Chief Executive
Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive
Bill Norman, Director of Law, HR & Asset Management
Others including committee clerk etc

The agenda and reports can be found here.

The meeting started with an apology from Cllr Foulkes who said he was “sorry to be late”. There were no declarations of interest. The committee then discussed the minutes of the Corporate Governance Committee held on the 26th October 2011.

Bill Norman mentioned that Cllr Tom Harney had communicated with him about the minutes which were in draft form. The draft minutes gave the impression that both Cllr Tom Harney and Cllr Jeff Green had been recorded in the minutes as members of the committee. However this would be changed to “in attendance”.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said he wanted “to set our stall out”, “not force to votes” and hoped the invite [to Cllr Tom Harney and Cllr Jeff Green] would be accepted in the spirit it was given. He then went on to talk about the “rules of engagement” and how they would “shape decisions”.

Cllr Adrian Jones said it would be “nice to get consensus”.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said he accepted the suggested changes [to the minutes]. The minutes with changes were agreed and the committee considered item 3 Work Program, Progress and Associated Issues.

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 10

Jim Wilkie said it was a working response to changing circumstances and that councillors made policy. He asked for further discussions on its precise role and interdependencies.

Cllr Foulkes said he saw it as a start despite the implied criticism. He asked for a detailed overview and said it would help corporate governance. He called it an “excellent start” which would be “more focused when developed” and hoped it was “not a massively excessive cost”. He asked for more detail and to look at how other local authorities did it.

Cllr Harney was happy with what Cllr Foulkes said. He brought up the issues of how to involve partners in policy (in relation to child poverty). Cllr Foulkes added a recommendation for a detailed report to come back. Cllr Ann McLachlan said child poverty work was currently channeled through the Children’s Trust Board but she recommended it go to the policy unit.

The recommendation was agreed which Cllr Foulkes said he was happy to endorse. Cllr Foulkes said it “went better than expected”, that he was “pleased with progress” and that people had been thoughtful. He asked for ideas for the next agenda and for progress reports on the issues councillors have outlined with milestones and dates.

Anna Klonowski said for alll dates, there needs to be a level of ambition and challenge in delivery. Clr Green called for some sort of program. Jim Wilkie said it would be done some time before the next meeting, but not just before at the briefing. Cllr Foulkes agreed and thanked Anna as well as everyone who’d come to the meeting.