The council’s recommendation to adopt a hybrid of both the Cabinet and Committee governance systems was rejected last night after 25 members voted in favour of an amendment put forward by Cllr Bob Blezzard to scrap the recommendation.
Instead a public consultation will take place, allowing members of the public to give their feedback on the three options of either adopting either a full-blown Committee system, the hybrid Executive Committee or remaining with the current Cabinet system.
Working Party investigated possible solution
Cllr Ian Stephens presented the paper (embedded below for your convenience) to members in the chamber at last night’s Full Council meeting, explaining that a Working Party had been set up to consider the best options.
The Working Party had included members from all political groups as well as the Independent councillors and Cllr Reg Barry, who as the only Liberal Democrat is not officially considered part of a group.
Three meetings had been held to discuss and consider the way forward.
Why the change?
As readers may remember, when the Independents came into office, they were vocal about wanting to change the current Cabinet system to something more open, transparent and accountable, with major decisions no longer being made by just a handful of councillors.
The idea of returning to the old committee system was initially favoured by the Independents, pending investigation of all possible options.
What was considered?
The Working Party came up with three options which were assessed against the following criteria:
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Inclusiveness
- Member/officer resources
- Impact on decision making
Executive Committee
Following the evaluation of all options, a recommendation was put forward to adopt an Executive Committee.
This was effectively a hybrid of both the Cabinet and Committee systems, with Executive Advisory Committees feeding back to the Executive and Overview and Scrutiny Committee and ultimately the Full Council.
The full Committee system was considered to stretch officer resources and may become too costly, so a hybrid that retained scrutiny, but gave the ability for all councillors to be involved in decision-making was favoured by the Working Party.
Flexible option
Cllr Stephens went on to explain that if the council adopted the Committee system, they would not be able to make any changes to it in the next five years.
However, by adopting the hybrid Executive Committee system, it gave the council the opportunity to make further changes to the system of governance within that period if needed.
Seconded by Labour councillor
Labour councillor Geoff Lumley made an historic move by seconding the motion. From our memory, it’s the first motion he’s ever seconded that has been proposed by the ruling group.
He said,
“As an example of inclusiveness that I’ve seen in County Hall since May, this is the first one where leaders of all groups have been involved in the Working Party on this. They’ve been very open and frank committees and we’ve all gone away believing the hybrid system is the best system for the future.”
He went on to the say he believed the Executive Committee system will be far more responsive than full Committee system and will bring far more accountability and involvement for all members.
“As someone who watched a cabinet for eight years who essentially kept everybody who wasn’t on the inner circle outside of the decision making, I think the hybrid version will involve people through the Executive Advisory Committee.”
“This council is more inclusive”
He went on to explain that he’d come up with the name and added,
“I think these are the sort of examples of why this council is more inclusive. Can you imagine the last lot accepting a name change for a committee from me?”
He finished by saying that he would support the motion overwhelmingly, pointing out that it would address,
“The commitment of Independents to returning to a committee system, whilst retaining the ability for effective and responsive decision-making.”
Unexpected opposition from Conservatives
It seemed to come as a surprise last night to those who’d taken part in the Working Party when the leader of the Island Conservative councillors, Cllr Dave Stewart opposed the recommendation.
He told members that he “consistently expressed concerns” on behalf of his group about the proposal both verbally and in writing to a council officer. He argued that the recommendation would reduce the level of scrutiny whilst retaining the Cabinet style of decision-making.
“I do not believe it to be in the best interests of the council or those who elected us to serve them and I believe we have duty to ensure good governance is in place.”
He urged the council to take time to reflect on the approach for the reasons highlighted in the report and finished by asking,
“Would the proposed approach going forward ensure appropriate levels of scrutiny are maintained in key areas of risk such as education, children’s services, adult social care and the budget? And if you’re not sure, and we have not got it right, then we need to amend the proposal, because what we’re intending to do is put something out to our community which we may not ourselves be sure we’ve got right and the public need to be aware.”
Barry: “We’ve got to be realistic”
Cllr Reg Barry spoke out against the amendment and in favour of the Executive Committee. He told members that he’d served “every sort of system you can think of”, even on select committees.
“We’ve got to be realistic and work with what we’ve got today. When I came on the council we had far more support than what we have now.
Over the years that’s been cut down, cut down and cut down. We can’t afford to go back to full blown committee system. We haven’t got the money to do it.
We’ll still have Geoff’s Scrutiny Committee and we’ll have the the Executive Committees also scrutinising things.
I think they’ll be more scrutiny with this system than there was in the other systems.”
Disappointed
Cllr Stubbings said he was intrigued that Cllr Stewart had come to the meeting with a “completely different view” to that with which he left the last Working party group meeting.
Adding,
“Dave, I’m disappointed.”
Amazed by comments from former administration
Cllr Bacon told members that he was,
“Quite amazed by some of the comments I’ve heard from the other side of the chamber this evening, given the way council was run by the previous administration and the attitude of the previous cabinet. I note that some members who were on that previous administration are now saying things such as ‘what we want is more scrutiny on this council’ …
“We’re not taking a decision on the actual method of governance here this evening, what we’re looking at is consultation forming an informed view of the best way to go forward.”
He added that some good points had been made on all sides of the chamber, but stressed the importance of the consultation.
Vote on amendment and motion
The councillors took a vote on the amendment, which was to scrap the idea that the Executive Committee System was a preferred option and simply consult on all three options.
This received 25 votes in favour, 11 against and 1 abstention.
Members then voted in the amended motion to consult on all three options.
This received 32 votes in favour, 4 against and 1 abstention.
Image: Bionicteaching under CC BY 2.0
