Transcript

Transcript

Welcome to this meeting of the Audit Committee. The time is now 7 p.m. The meeting has commenced and is being broadcast live on the council's website. My name is Leanne Dell and I'm clerking this meeting. Agenda item 1. The first item on the on the agenda is the election of chair for the 24-25 municipal year. In accordance with paragraph 4.11.2 of procedure rule 4 of the council's constitution, I'm the representative of the head of paid service and will conduct the election of chair. Therefore members of the committee, please. Can I call for nominations for the election of chair? I'd like to nominate Councillor Essex as chair, please. Do we have a seconder? Yes, I'd like to seconder Councillor Essex for the role of chair. Thank you. Are there any other nominations? There being no other nominations, can I have a general assent that you're happy with this proposal? Thank you. I duly nominate Councillor Essex as chair of this committee. Councillor Essex, would you like to take your position? Be right to take your nameplate as well. Do you want me to grab that for you? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you councillors. My first action as chair is to welcome you to this audit committee. As you're aware, we are now in the pre-election period for the general election taking place on Thursday the 4th of July. Guidance has been issued by the monitoring officer to members and officers. Please be mindful of this when taking part in council meetings during this period of heightened sensitivity. It will be important to ensure that councillor conduct during council meetings is not perceived by the public as election campaigning and that the political impartiality of officers is maintained. I would like to remind members when presenting reports or asking questions to please refrain from endorsing or referencing any candidates or political parties standing in the elections and any controversial political campaigns or policies relating to the election. I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded and webcast live. Anyone present therefore accepts that they may be filmed or recorded. Members are reminded to silence their mobile phones for the duration of the meeting. Please can members also pay this meeting the attention it deserves by not using their mobile phones or social media whilst the meeting is in progress. All microphones are currently muted. When called to speak, members should turn on their microphones and address the committee by speaking clearly. To assist in the smooth running of the meeting, members are asked to remember to turn off their microphones when they finish speaking. If you have a declaration of interest to make, please raise your hand at item 5. The Democratic Services Officer will facilitate you being able to leave the room for that item. And if I have to adjourn the meeting at any time, I will advise that the meeting is being adjourned and state the time that it is being reconvened. The live stream will be paused and then resumed at the given time. Everyone should remain in the meeting with their microphones muted and those attending remotely can turn off their mic off their video if they wish. Okay, we are now joined tonight by Natalie Gerams from the Southern Internal Audit Partnership. And just to note the council officers in attendance tonight are says Mary Roberts Wood, but I don't think she's here. But we do have Pat Mayne, Chief Finance Officer, Joyce Hamilton, Legal Services, Kath Rose. He says Head of Corporate Policy Projects and Performance, Leanne Dell, Democratic Services and Clerk for this meeting, and then if I'm right, Neil Pittman and Natalie Gerams, both of them. SIAAP. Anyone else that I've missed? Lisa Nyon, the Deputy Chief Finance Officer. Brilliant. Thank you very much. Okay, so the next item of business is the election of Vice-Chair for the 2024 to 2025 municipal year. Therefore, members of the committee, I call for any nominations for the election of the Vice-Chair. Yes, Councillor Fairhurst. Thank you. I'd like to nominate Councillor Green, please. Thank you. So, Councillor Fairhurst has proposed Councillor Green. Is there a seconder? May I second, Councillor Green? Okay, and if all, now I may put the motion to elect Councillor Green as Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee to the meeting. Is that agreed? Thank you very much. Thank you. Councillor Green has been elected as Vice-Chair of the Committee for this coming municipal year. Okay, may I move now on to item three, which is minutes the last meeting? I don't know if you've had a chance to look at those minutes. Anyone, anything you'd like to raise with regards to the minutes of the last meeting? In that case, may I confirm that they are a correct record of the minutes of the previous meeting? Agreed? Agreed. Item four, apologies for absence and any substitutions. Any apologies? I don't think there's anyone not here. Yeah, we've had an apology from Councillor Buteroni. Councillor Fairhurst is attending as his substitute. Excellent. Thank you. Okay, item five, declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest including existence and nature of any party whip? Nope. No declarations of interest. Item six on the agenda is to change the date of the meeting in July. Pat, is there anything you'd like to say on that? Yes, thank you Chair. Members are very aware that we've got the agenda we were in now in the pre-election period for the general election. That's placing considerable extra demands on the officers who normally support this committee and as for the executive and the overview and scrutiny that was scheduled early in July, the recommendation of officers is that the meetings are put back a week to allow us to focus on the important tasks in hand in terms of delivering a successful outcome in terms of the administration of the election. So that's the principal reason why we're recommending putting that meeting back. Which obviously wasn't foreseen when the annual calendar was developed earlier this year. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Councillor Green. That's correct. Okay, I understand you're agreeing and but may I put that that's the recommendation to the committee are everyone happy to for that change from the 3rd to the 10th of July for the next meeting. Agreed? Agreed. Brilliant. Thank you very much. Item seven is any other urgent business. I understand there is none. So with that may I close this formal part of the meeting and I think we're moving on to training a bit later. So thank you very much. I'll close the meeting at 19.08. Thank you. Thank you.