The first round of scrutiny committee meetings are taking place at West Offices this month.
Hopes that the agenda for the meetings would clarify roles and responsibilities appear to have been misplaced.
We are told that the, quaintly named, “Economy and Place” scrutiny committee will hear reports from three Executive members
- Executive Member for Economy and Strategic Planning (July)
- Executive Member for Transport (July)
- Executive Member for Environment and Climate Change (Sept)
The latter may be a surprise as the Council meeting held on the 22nd May agreed to set up a new “Climate Change Scrutiny Committee”. It didn’t define the terms of reference of that committee but engagement with the Executive member with climate change responsibilities would have been a banker for most observers.
Any list of responsibilities will be subject to a change in the Councils constitution anyway.
Meanwhile the agenda for the “Customer and Corporate Services Scrutiny Management Committee” to be held on 10th June will receive reports from the
- Executive Member for Policy Strategy and Partnerships (Leader) &
- Executive Member for Finance and Partnerships
No new job descriptions have yet been published for the Councils 9 Executive members. Most of the job titles are opaque, so it remains unclear where responsibilities now lie.
The new Council has got off to a poor start after becoming embroiled in a controversy about increasing the amount spent on Councillors pay. They could easily have avoided that false start by containing expenditure within the existing agreed budget envelope.
New Councillors might have been expected to be more eager to demonstrate their effectiveness by highlighting, via public and social media, the successes they are having in addressing issues raised by residents. Most will have had a full “postbag” during the recent election campaigns.
Little has been heard from the Councils PR department (apart from the occasional anodyne media release) and even the party political propaganda channels have been muted.
During the last 12 months there has been a wide divergence in the number of decision meetings attended by Executive members in York
NB. Executive Councillors receive a payment of £15,600 a year in addition to their basic salary of £9,198.39