Agenda item

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 15 July 2015 (copy enclosed).

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.   

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15 July 2015 had been circulated to Members with the agenda.

Councillor Alison Halford referred to page 4 and 5 of the minutes and her comments about the increase in the precept for the North Wales Police & Crime Commissioner.  She said that she did not remember the Chief Executive giving the answer that was recorded in the minutes.  At the meeting she had commented that the Council precept partly paid for the Police & Crime Commissioner but the Chief Executive had not agreed.  She felt that it was a drain on Council Tax and she had discussed the matter with the local Assembly Member Mark Isherwood.  She had been advised that the Police & Crime Commissioner was funded through three separate sources, one of which was the Council precept.  In response to a comment from Councillor Bernie Attridge, Councillor Halford said that the minutes did not reflect what was said at the meeting and that the Chief Executive had added in his own opinion of how the Police & Crime Commissioner was funded. 

In response, the Chief Executive said that there was a need to deal with the comments and the insinuation made by Councillor Halford and added that the minute did reflect what had been said at the meeting.  The issue had also been raised when Mr. Winston Roddick, the Police & Crime Commissioner, had attended the County Council meeting held on 23^rd July 2015.  The Chief Executive recalled Mr. Roddick saying that funding for his role was drawn from National Government.  Councillor Halford thanked the Chief Executive for his explanation.  The Chief Executive added that the explanation had been provided on a number of occasions and that was why it was not included in the Statement of Accounts, and Mr. Roddick had confirmed that his role was not directly funded from Flintshire County Council. 

On the issue of the minutes, the Chief Executive explained that he had provided the response shown and in advising of the process of when officers saw the minutes and their input into them, he asked the Chief Officer (Governance) to provide further information on the issue.  The Chief Officer explained that the minutes preparation process involved the Committee Officer taking notes at the meeting and then preparing the draft minutes for circulation to officers.  He advised that officers provided explanation where needed and if changes were suggested which the Committee Officer was not comfortable with, then this would be queried with the officer.  The draft minutes were circulated for completeness, not for officers at the meeting to add in their own views or opinions. 

Following a question from Mr. Paul Williams on compulsory or voluntary redundancy packages, the Chief Executive confirmed that the Council’s policies treated voluntary and compulsory redundancies the same and made redundancy payments for up to a maximum of 45 weeks.  This had been applied by the Council for a number of years and the policy had been re-adopted 18 months ago.  He added that the policy was different to the statutory redundancy rights.  The Chief Officer (Governance) advised that the regulations under which payments were made allowed for statutory discretionary payments for up to 2 years (or 104 weeks) for redundancy pay but the Council’s policy was below these guidelines and therefore in effect became a cap on payments. 

Councillor Halford queried who the Principal Auditor referred to on page 11 and was advised by the Internal Audit Manager that this was Lisa Brownbill. 

RESOLVED:

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.