Behind closed doors

York City Tradingsecret decisions

Following on from our story about the remuneration of the Directors of Quangos in York, a Tory Councillor has announced in the media that any such payments, made to Council officials who run the City of York Trading, will cease. That is the right decision, but is has apparently been made without other members of the so called shareholders committee having had a meeting to discuss the issue.

The Executive meeting last week also singularly failed to specify under what circumstances, if any, Directors of publicly owned companies would receive remuneration.

It points to endemic failings in governance processes at the York Council.

The Council should agree to put details of the meetings of all shareholder committees (which are supposed to look after the public interest) in their calendar of meetings while publishing agendas, supporting papers and meeting minutes promptly.

They should also retrospectively publish the minutes of all shareholders meetings which previously have been held in private (which might help to lift the veil on why three Labour Councillors agreed to the financial inducements in the first place).

Make it York

closed doorsAnother concern is the method of operation of another shareholders committee which seeks to govern the work of Make it York – another wholly council owned Quango.

After pressure, that committee agreed on 6th July to meet in public and publish agendas and meeting minutes. Now, only 5 working days before their meeting is scheduled to take place on 5th October, the agenda and supporting papers don’t even appear on the Council’s web site.

 It was only after a Freedom of Information request had been lodged, that residents even got to know that the meeting was planned!

Neither of the shareholders committees are identified in the formal list of Council committees

The secret life of decisions part 2

secret-meeting-safe-picThe Council continues to decide issues without publishing agendas in advance of meetings, We have condemned this practice in the past although – because the decisions area generally minor – our view is that papers should be published in advance to allow written representations to be made by residents.

Examples of recent behind closed doors decisions include (click to view details):

More behind closed doors decisions

BehindClosedDoors 2015

The York Council is continuing its policy of printing agendas and reports for officer decision meetings after they have taken place.

This robs interested residents of the opportunity to make representations.

Two recent examples have been

  1. A decision on introducing residents parking priority in Newborough Street
  2. A proposal ” To convert three existing Housing Support Worker posts to specialist Mental Health Support Worker posts; Director of Communities & Neighbourhoods”

There is no reason why advanced notice of issues like these should not be given

Democracy at the York Council

THURAISINGHAM PBK(244x172)The Council’s Executive is due to considered how to encourage more pre-decision policy debate when it meets on Thursday.

The report can be read by clicking here.

The proposed system seems to be more complicated than we might have hoped for!!

Although the new process is a step away from “behind closed doors” decision making, it pointedly fails to reinforce the rights of residents to have a timely opportunity to make representations to elected members. One welcome change is that the Councils “Forward Plan” will be updated each week although in the past there have been occasions when agenda items have been mis-recorded on this plan.  

At present there remains no requirement for advanced notice to be given of decisions which are likely taken by officers using delegated powers.

Meanwhile a five Councillor “E-Democracy” task group is due to meet tomorrow. They have courageously decided to fully exploit the outer limits of technological  innovation  – by catching a bus for a face to face meeting at West Offices!

Free evening car parking on 19th November

There will be no parking charges on the evening of Thursday 19th November when the City launches its Christmas activities programme.BehindClosedDoors 2015

The concession represents a step back from the situation which applied prior to 2011 when free parking was allowed on each late night shopping day in the run up to Christmas. As such it is likely to be of limited value to those retailers who are being urged to stay open until at least 8:00pm.

The decision is expected to cost the York Council around £2000 in lost income.

Unfortunately once again the decision was taken behind closed doors with the agenda and background papers for the meeting only being published after the decsion had been taken

Now York Council misplaces horse and cart

Second worst in region for data breaches

Data breach report Aug 2015

Data breach report Aug 2015

A report published today reveals that in Yorkshire only Doncaster (106 cases)  had more breaches of data protection rules than the York Council.

A report by “Big Brother Watch“  says York had the second highest number of incidents in the region with 73.

72 of these did not result in any disciplinary action.

The Council declined to provide details of the individual incidents. 

Nationally many cases resulted from the loss or theft of laptop computers

There were also 33 breaches in Kirklees, 26 in the East Riding and 12 in Wakefield.

The North Yorkshire County Council declined to respond to the FOI request.

Meanwhile more “cart before horse” secret decisions are taken

cart before horse

Before the horse slipped out of the York Council stable, there was  time for more decisions to be taken without any prior notice. 

These have included, so far, this week:

York Council set to move forward on open decision making

open-door-in-white-brick-wall-Stock-Photo-doors

It could be early autumn before new all party committees get the chance to debate the York Council’s upcoming policy plans.

A report being considered on 13th July proposes a return to a form of Executive Member advisory panel (EMAP) which was in use in York during the early part of the last decade. These meetings involve Councillors from all parties and are held in public.  To aid planning, meetings occupied a scheduled day each month and were cancelled if there was no business to consider.

Introduced by the Liberal Democrats when they took power, EMAPs sought to widen discussion on policies which affected the City. The sessions were abandoned in 2008 when Labour – who were the main opposition in a balanced Council at the time – refused to participate saying that they preferred the (confrontational) option of “calling in” some proposals for review.

Under the new arrangements, so called “Officer in Consultation” decision meetings are also to be scrapped. These were the meetings which prompted the “behind closed doors” criticisms of the old Council.

Instead these decisions will be taken at an open Executive member meeting.

Of course, how the system works in practice remains to be seen. It’s success rests heavily on future decisions being correctly identified  on the Councils “Forward Plan” although this will – rightly – become a “rolling“ programme in future

The new system doesn’t address the issue of Council officials taking decisions exploiting their delegated powers. This has been a particular problem in the Housing department where some wide reaching decisions – including one which saw visits by skips abandoned on some estates – have been taken without even, apparently, the knowledge of Councillors.

Similar issues arise with the growth of third party agencies such as the trusts and companies which now run our museums, libraries and economic development activities.

Thought also now needs to be given as to how residents can feel more involved in the decision process. Extended use of social media channels seems to be an obvious further refinement

Still the report is a step in the right direction.

Hopefully the new arrangements will start in September after the Council’s August recess.

York Council “Behind closed doors” decisions – summary

The new Council seems to be struggling to introduce more open procedures as quickly as many had hoped.

BehindClosedDoors 2015

Understandably procedural change has to find its way through the formal processes of the Council – and might even involve amendments to the Constitution – but the lack of an early statement of intent is likely to become an increasing irritant to some residents.

Several relatively minor decisions have been taken over the last week. In each case the agenda and background  papers were published after the decision had been taken.

It takes very little effort to ensure that agendas appear on the Council web site in advance of meetings taking place. Whether those decisions – which involve only Council officials – need for some reason  to be insulated from the comments of taxpayers may be a matter of opinion.

This week the following decisions have been recorded (click to access what background information the Council has chosen to publish)

  1.  Award of 4 Year Term Contract to Redhill Analysts Ltd to undertake Asbestos Surveys, Air Monitoring to the social housing portfolio; Director of Communities & Neighbourhoods
  2.  Award of 4 Year Term Contract to Gentoo Construction Ltd to undertake Asbestos Removals to the social housing portfolio; Director of Communities & Neighbourhoods
  3.  Heslington Lane, Broadway – Hull Road Ward and Fulford and Heslington Ward; Director of City & Environmental Services This decision concerned a plan to advertise parking restrictions on Heslington Lane
  4. Burdyke Avenue Improvement Scheme – Follow Up; Director of City & Environmental Services This decision concerned the length of a parking lay-by which is being constructed on Burdyke Avenue

 

 

 

10 Council staff to be transferred to “Make it York”

Behind closed doors logoIn a behind closed doors decision, York Council officials have agreed to transfer 10 staff to the new “Make it York” company.

The transfers will be made on 1st July. They employees come from the economic development department, events and City centre management

46 staff have already been transferred to the company from “Visit York” and “Science City”

The last Council was heavily criticised for taking decision like this without firs publishing papers giving the reason for the proposals.

There are also outstanding issues with new organisation on governance and the need to establish and report on measurable performance goals for the company.

Make it York has been criticised for failing to involve sub-urban commercial areas like Front Street in its development plans.

 

Busking guidelines agreed at behind closed doors decision session

The quality of buskers in the City centre may – or may not – change after the York Council announced that it had changed its guidelines for them.

Buskers guidelines

The decision was taken yesterday by a Council official using delegated powers.

What effect the changes will have no one knows as the background report has not been made available to the public!

——

A restructure of the public health team was also agreed at the same time. There is a similar lack of information in the published background papers.

Latest “behind closed doors” decisions by York Council

Behind closed doors logoHolgate Road cycle lane

Parking is to be removed and cycle lanes installed on the uphills section of Holgate Road between Poppleton Road and Watson Street.

Some currently unrestricted carriageway will become Respark spaces.

Click here for diagram showing the proposals

Osbaldwick Lane – extension of 20 mph zone with traffic calming

Click here for map of (revised at annex B) plans

Millthorpe Secondary School – School Keep Clear

Making an Order will allow enforcement of the existing School Keep Clear zig-zag markings, to prevent dangerous parking by the entrance at school times and therefore improve safety for pupils.

Click here for a copy of the plan

Archbishop Holgate’s School – Proposed School Keep Clear and No Waiting At Any Time Traffic Regulation Orders

Click here for copy of plan (annex B)

Pinch Point Scheme, A19 South Transport Corridor – Phase 1 (Designer Outlet/Fulford area)

Click  here for proposed revised layout