Issue - meetings

(a)       That Mr Jonathan Duggan-Keen be appointed to the Standards Committee;

(b)       That Mrs Diane Johnson be thanked and reimbursed for her service on the Standards Committee and in the recruitment of her successor;

(c)        That the Chair of the Standards Committee from Wrexham County Borough Council be thanked and reimbursed for his involvement in recruiting the Town/Community representative;

(d)       That the letter seeking future nominations from Town and Community Councils be amended accordingly; and

(e)       That the Standards Committee recruitment procedure, as set out in Appendix 2 of the report, be approved subject to the amendments listed above.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services introduced a report to enable the County Council to select a representative from the Town and Community Councils to serve on the Standards Committee and to amend the process for appointing such representatives to enable future interviews to be carried out by the Chair of the Council, the Chair of the Standards Committee and the Monitoring Officer.  A copy of the revised procedure was attached at Appendix 2 of the report.  Following a letter being sent to Town and Community Councils seeking nominations, 6 applicants were interviewed on 28 August, 2012 by the:-

·        Retiring Member of the Standards Committee representing Town and Community Councils;

·        The Chair of the Council; and

·        The Chairman of the Standards Committee of a neighbouring authority.

Following the interviews, the preferred candidate was Mr. Jonathan Duggan-Keen, currently serving as a Caerwys Town Councillor.

                        Councillor M.J. Peers suggested that the words ‘not actively participate in local or national politics’ be removed in future letters to Town and Community Clerks seeking nominations for the Standards Committee.  He also proposed the following amendments to the Standards Committee recruitment process:-

·      That the panel interviewing the short listed candidates be called the Recruitment Panel;

·      That the process should state that the Monitoring Officer would notify Town and Community Councils of the preferred candidate; and

·      That all Town and Community Councils would be notified of the name of the proposed candidate and that comments on the proposed candidates would be sought.  Any comments received should be presented to County Council together with the name of the proposed candidate. 

Councillor R.J.T. Guest said that the word ‘discrete’ be amended to ‘discreet’ in the letter seeking nominations from Town and Community Councils.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That Mr Jonathan Duggan-Keen be appointed to the Standards Committee;

(b)       That Mrs Diane Johnson be thanked and reimbursed for her service on the Standards Committee and in the recruitment of her successor;

(c)        That the Chair of the Standards Committee from Wrexham County Borough Council be thanked and reimbursed for his involvement in recruiting the Town/Community representative;

(d)       That the letter seeking future nominations from Town and Community Councils be amended accordingly; and

(e)       That the Standards Committee recruitment procedure, as set out in Appendix 2 of the report, be approved subject to the amendments listed above.