Agenda and minutes

            The Chair welcomed Councillors, representatives of the public, press and officers to the meeting. He extended a special welcome to the Council’s Honorary Aldermen watching the meeting live online.

            The Chair confirmed that he had received a request from the Leader of the Council to adjourn the meeting from 5.00 pm to 6.00 pm to allow for as many Councillors as possible to be able to attend.

            Councillor Walsh then formally proposed that the meeting be adjourned to a start time of 6.00 pm and this was then seconded by Councillor Chapman.

            On this being put to the vote, it was declared CARRIED.

            The Council

                        RESOLVED

That the Special Meeting of the Council convened for 13 October 2021 with a start time of 5.00 pm be adjourned to commence at 6.00 pm.

            The meeting was then adjourned to re-commence at 6.00 pm.

            The Chair welcomed Councillors, representatives of the public, press and officers to the adjourned meeting commencing at 6.00 pm. He extended a special welcome to the Council’s Honorary Aldermen watching the meeting live on-line.

Members and Officers are invited to make any declarations of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the item or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:

a)  the item they have the interest in

b)  whether it is a pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interest

c)  the nature of the interest

d) if it is a pecuniary or prejudicial interest, whether they will be exercising their right to speak under Question Time

The Declaration of Interest Sheet set out below confirms those Members who had made a declaration of their personal interest as a Member of a Town or Parish Councillor or a West Sussex County Councillor, as confirmed in their Register of Interest as these declarations could apply to any of the issues to be discussed at the meeting. 

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes)

The Chair confirmed that no questions had been submitted for this meeting.

To receive questions from Members with pecuniary/prejudicial interests (for a period of up to 15 minutes)

            No questions were asked.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Council held on 15 September 2021, which are attached.

            The Chair requested Council to approve the Minutes of the Council Meeting held on 15 September 2021, which would be signed at the end of the meeting.

            Councillor Coster confirmed that the minutes were not accurate. He referred to Minute 263 [Motions] Page 176 of the minutes [page 6 of the agenda pack], the second paragraph: The changes requested by Councillor Coster have been set out below with deletions shown using strikethrough and additions shown using bold:

Councillor Coster raised a Point of Order in relation to Council Procedure Rule 15.5 [How Motions will be dealt with] and he referred to sections (a) and (b) of that rule as outlined in the Constitution reading the rules out to the meeting. Councillor Coster suggested that this matter the Motion without Notice from Councillor Roberts be referred to the Constitution Working Party for consideration and that this matter should not be considered here.

            Councillor Coster then formally proposed these amendments which were then duly seconded by Councillor Dixon.

            On the amendments being put to the vote they were announced CARRIED.

            A request was also made by Councillor Lury to remove his name on Minute 263 [Motions] on the same minute and page in the bottom paragraph of this page.

            The minutes as amended were then proposed by Councillor Oliver-Redgate and were then seconded by Councillor Bower.  On them being put to the vote they were then approved.

To receive such announcements as the Chair may desire to lay before the Council.

The Chair reminded those Councillors taking part in Remembrance Sunday Services across the District, to please remember to take away with them after the meeting their poppy wreaths which has been laid out in the Members clearly marked for collection.        

To deal with business not otherwise specified in the Council summons which, in the opinion of the Chairman of the Council (in consultation with the Chief Executive), is business of such urgency as to require immediate attention by the Council.

            The Chair confirmed that there were no items for this meeting.

The report informs Members of the process to be followed by the Chief Executive’s Remuneration Panel for the recruitment and selection of a permanent Chief Executive

The Chair invited the Acting Chief Executive to present a report which informed Members of the process to be followed for the recruitment and selection of a permanent Chief Executive.

Councillors’ attention was steered towards the four recommendations set out in the report with the Acting Chief Executive confirming that he wished to expand and provide more detail with regard to Recommendation (4).

 It was explained that this recommendation followed on from the meeting held of the Chief Executive’s Remuneration Committee on 11 October 2021. This report had been written on the basis that there would be a natural flow of actions from meetings of the Chief Executive Recruitment & Selection Panel held in September 2021, which had also made recommendations to the Recruitment Committee of 11 October 2021.   The purpose of Recommendation (4) was to endorse these recommendations and to bring them to this meeting for consideration.  The minutes from the CEO Remuneration Committee held on 11 October 2021 had been circulated to all Members via email and had been uploaded to the Full Council web pages as a supplement earlier on in the afternoon. They contained recommendations (a), (b) and (c) as set out below:

(a)          A Members’ Seminar be organised to explore what the Council could or could not do in terms of the appointment for a permanent Chief Executive Officer or Head of Paid Service allowing all options to be explored and all options in terms of salary in the current financial climate to be examined to ensure and achieve value for money for the District’s residents. It was confirmed that this Seminar be organised for as soon as possible;

(b)          In looking at the remuneration for a permanent Chief Executive, that salary reviews move to the national pay award in the future as agreed by the “Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Chief Executives of Local Authorities; and

(c)           In appointing an Interim Chief Executive Officer, the day rate proposed by the Chief Executive Recruitment & Selection Panel equating to £1,543 per day be noted and left for Full Council to debate.

The Acting Chief Executive explained the reason for referring to these recommendations. This was because the Remuneration Committee [that had met on 11 October 2021] had recommended a different way forward challenging Recommendation (4) as outlined in the report. It was necessary now for the Council to consider a way forward. In assisting with this process, Officers had discussed how Members may wish to proceed. It was emphasised that whilst Officers were not making any amendments to the recommendations in the report, Members might wish to consider making an amendment to recommendation (4) as set out below if Council wished to support the Remuneration Committee’s proposal for a Members’ Seminar:

“To agree to the recommendations of the Chief Executive Remuneration Committee in terms of the remuneration package offered to the new Chief Executive”.

The Acting Chief Executive stated that if Members wished to support the recommendations of the Recruitment & Selection Panel whose recommendations were submitted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 380.

To confirm that no Motions have been submitted in accordance with Council Procedure 15.

The Chair confirmed that no Motions had been submitted for this meeting.

Any changes to Committee Memberships that need noting by the Council will be reported at the meeting.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Gunner, confirmed the following changes to Committee Memberships which were noted by the Council:

·      Councillor Clayden had replaced Councillor Stainton on the Licensing Committee

·      Councillor Staniforth had replaced Councillor Dendle on the Economic Committee

·      Councillor Roberts had replaced Councillor Dendle on the CEO Remuneration Committee

The Committee is asked to consider passing the following resolution: -

            That under Section 100a (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and accredited representatives of newspapers be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act by virtue of the paragraph specified against the item.

Having been proposed by Councillor Bower and seconded by Councillor Gunner, the Council

     RESOLVED

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and accredited representatives of newspapers be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it may involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act by virtue of the paragraph specified against the item.

The report informs Members of the process followed by the Chief Executive’s Recruitment and Selection Panel for the selection of an interim Chief Executive and requests the Council agree to the appointment of the Interim Chief Executive Officer as recommended by the Recruitment and Selection Panel and endorsed by the Remuneration Committee.

The Chair invited the Interim Group Head of Corporate Support & Section 151 Officer to present this report.

It was outlined that this report informed the Council of the process that had been followed by the Chief Executive Remuneration and Selection Panel [with that membership having been approved by Full Council on 15 September 2021] for the selection of an Interim Chief Executive Officer as recommended by that Panel following meetings held on 16 and 29 September 2021 and then considered and recommended by the Chief Executive Remuneration Committee [Recommendation (c) from its meeting held on 11 October 2021].

The recommendations before the Council had been set out with six recommendations being proposed with Recommendation (4) asking the Council to agree to the appointment of James Hassett as the Interim Chief Executive Officer, subject to the Council approving the salary to be paid.

Councillor Gunner, as Leader of the Council, in formally proposing the recommendations confirmed that he wished to make an amendment to Recommendation (3).  He explained that following negotiation with the Leader of the Opposition [Councillor Walsh] and the Leader of the Independent Group [Councillor Dixon] he had undertaken further negotiation with the candidate earlier on in the day.  The result of that negotiation confirmed that Mr Hassett had agreed to reduce his daily rate of pay down by £200 per day providing the Council with a saving totalling £25k.

An amendment to Recommendation (3) was therefore proposed to read:

“To approve a General Fund supplementary estimate of £122k £97k (this equates to a Council Tax band D of £1.95 £1.55);

This amendment was seconded by Councillor Pendleton.

Councillor Gunner praised this cross-party working and the achievement that had been made in securing this reduced rate which had been re-considered in response to large public concern.  This point was then echoed and praised by other Group Leaders.  The majority of Councillors welcomed what would be a new start for Arun with the expectation that the new Interim Chief Executive would achieve best value for Arun and its residents delivering much needed change and pushing forward much needed regeneration. 

     There were a couple of Councillors who spoke against the recommendations confirming that payment of such a high salary was out of touch in view of the day to day financial struggles being experienced by residents.

Following further discussion, a vote on the amendment to Recommendation 3 was undertaken and this was confirmed CARRIED.

The Chair then returned to the substantive recommendations and invited debate. Extensive debate on the substantive recommendations took place.

            Following further discussion, a request had been made that the voting on the substantive recommendations be recorded.

            Those voting for were Councillors Baker, Bicknell, Blanchard-Cooper, Bower, Buckland, Chace, Chapman, Charles, Clayden, Mrs Cooper, Cooper, Coster, Daniells, Dendle, Dixon, Edwards, Mrs English, English, Goodheart, Gregory, Gunner, Hamilton, Hughes, Huntley, Kelly, Lury, Oliver-Redgate, Pendleton, Purchese, Roberts, Staniforth, Stanley, Tilbrook, Thurston, Walsh, Warr and Yeates (37). Councillor Worne voted against. Councillor Brooks abstained from voting.

            The Council

                        RESOLVED – That  ...  view the full minutes text for item 384.