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19 November 2023
After 2 months of virtually nothing happening (apparently), I found out last Friday that the Clerk had taken emergency powers three weeks ago, in consultation with the Chair, Cllr Jones.
It is concerning that councillors were not told about the Clerk taking these emergency powers at the time.
I found these emergency powers in the background papers for the Full Council meeting on 21 November. The papers were circulated to councillors last Friday.
These emergency powers are not obvious from the agenda. They come under item 6.4 “Action under delegated powers. To receive a report of actions taken by the Clerk following consultation with the Chair – Appendix I.”
The background papers, including Appendix I are not on the Council’s website; the public have to ask the Clerk for copies.
It is concerning that it is not obvious on the agenda to the public (or indeed councillors) that the Clerk has taken these emergency powers.
As normal the papers have been sent to councillors on a confidential basis but I see nothing confidential in the Clerk taking emergency powers. Indeed, it is important that the public knows what is happening. So, I am reproducing Appendix I below.
It is concerning that the information on the emergency powers has been sent to councillors on a confidential basis.
You will see, from point 5 in Appendix I, that the “Responsible Financial Officer” is now authorising payments. The Council’s Financial Regulations require expenditure to be authorised by the Council except: -
"Paragraph 4.5
“In cases of extreme risk to the delivery of Council services, the Clerk may authorise revenue expenditure on behalf of the Council which in the Clerk’s judgement it is necessary to carry out.”
It is concerning that no evidence has been provided that the delivery of services is at extreme risk.
It is doubly concerning because Council has not appointed an RFO to replace Cllr Jones when he resigned from that post in September. Appointment of the RFO is a reserved power of the Council in HPC’s Scheme of Delegation. So, the Council has no RFO who is legally appointed.
You will also see from point 3 that Council will merely be given a list of payments already authorised and paid by the RFO. When I looked at the agenda more closely, this what is happening already. Council is merely asked at item 6.2 to receive the list of payments already approved and paid.
It is concerning that this change was made without clearly flagging this up to Council – and the public.
The exemption in paragraph 4.5 of HPC’s Financial Regulations is subject to a limit of £5000.
It is concerning that two of the payments already approved and paid exceed this limit – one for £19,355 to a company called Proludic (I don’t know what for) and £11,318 to a company called Spruced Up.
You will also see from points 1 and 2 that councillors will not be provided with the invoices before meetings to enable them to check against the payments already approved and paid. (Invoices were previously provided to councillors before meetings so they could check payments before authorising.)
The invoices will be available at the Council meeting or councillors can go to the Council office to see them. I know from experience that it can take an hour or more to check payments against the invoices so checking during a Council meeting is not going to work.
It is concerning that councillors will not even be able, practically, to check the payments that have already been authorised and paid.
It is unclear from point 8 whether anyone except the locum Clerks will be authorising salaries, payments to the agency that employs the locum Clerks and expenses. Certainly, there seems to be no authorisation or checking by councillors.
It is concerning that staff are authorising and paying salaries/payments to their agencies/their expenses; this leaves Council vulnerable.
You will see from Appendix I that the Clerk says these emergency powers were “triggered” by the resignation of the Deputy Chair/Chair of Finance, Cllr Main.
I find this difficult to understand.
The Clerk proposes elsewhere on the agenda that the business of the Finance Committee should be done by the Council for the time being. So, a Chair of Finance is not needed at the moment.
In addition, Council can always appoint a new Deputy Chair. I have already told Cllr Jones that I would be prepared to stand as Deputy Chair if necessary. Other councillors might have done the same.
But Cllr Jones did not tell councillors that the resignation triggered an emergency and did not ask for nominations for Deputy Chair. Moreover, there is no item on the agenda asking for nominations. You have to ask why.
The Clerk also cites lack of staff and lack of continuity of staff in the post of Clerk for the emergency. And yet there are no proposals for helping to resolve this problem.
The “RFO’s” report suggests increasing her hours of work but there is no motion to do this. There are no motions on recruitment of staff and no reports of action being taken. And you have to ask, why not? This should be HPC’s first priority.
I also have to point out that in March 2022, HPC had no staff. It carried on with its business then because councillors stepped up to do the work, (some working very hard indeed). Councillors, for example, did the minutes of the meetings. In addition, the then Chair called frequent Extraordinary meetings to deal with urgent business, such as appointing staff and making payments.
You have to ask why councillors haven’t been asked to help, why these problems haven’t been discussed by Council and why the Chair hasn’t convened Extraordinary meetings to deal with urgent Council business such as authorising payments and appointing the RFO and Clerk.
It is concerning that emergency action has been taken without any consideration of other options by Council.
The emergency powers taken by the Clerk have no time limit. Elsewhere on the agenda, the Clerk proposes that the Council next meets on 16 January. It appears that the only way for the Clerk to relinquish these powers is for the Clerk to decide to do so - or for the Council to change its Scheme of Delegation at some future meeting.
It is concerning that these emergency powers have no end date and can last for months.
However, I have to point out that the Clerk has not actually been appointed by the Council. The appointment of staff is reserved to Council and no-one else has the authority to do so. So, it is questionable whether the “Clerk” is the Clerk and has the legal authority to take these powers in Appendix I.
And as a final thought, there is no paragraph 8(a) 2 in HPC’s Scheme of Delegation which is cited by the Clerk.
It is concerning that someone not appointed by the Council as Clerk has taken these emergency powers and concerning that the wrong paragraph is cited.
Having given you information about these extraordinary events, my best guess is that Council will rubberstamp everything as usual, with me voting against – and very few members of the public will turn up.
But we will see.