MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL
1. ANNUAL MEETING
(1) The annual meeting of the Council will normally be held on the last Friday in May, except in a year when there is a full election of Councillors.
(2) In a year where there is an ordinary election of Councillors, the date of the annual Council meeting will be fixed in accordance with Statute, to take place within 21 days immediately following the day of retirement of Councillors.
2. ORDINARY MEETINGS
(1) In addition to the annual meeting and special meetings, ordinary meetings of the Council will be held on eleven occasions a year on dates to be decided at the Council’s Annual Meeting.
(2) Except in special circumstances, no meetings shall be held during the month of August.
3. EXTRAORDINARY MEETINGS
An extraordinary meeting of the Council may be required by:-
(a) the Council by resolution
(b) the Mayor
(c) the Monitoring Officer*
(d) any five members of the Council if they have signed a requisition presented to the Mayor and he or she has refused to call a meeting or has failed to call a meeting within 7 days of the presentation of the requisition.
(* Local Government and Housing Act 1989 Section 5 (5)(a))
4. TIME AND PLACE OF MEETINGS
(1) Annual Meeting
Annual meetings, except where otherwise ordered by the Mayor, shall be held at 11.00am at a venue to be arranged within the Borough.
(2) Ordinary Meetings
Ordinary meetings, except where otherwise ordered by the Mayor, shall be held at 7.00pm at the Town Hall, Bournemouth.
5. NOTICE OF AND SUMMONS TO MEETINGS
The Chief Executive will give notice to the public of the time and place of any meetings in accordance with the Access to Information Rules. At least three clear days before a meeting, the Chief Executive will send a summons signed by him or her to every Member of the Council or leave it at their usual place of residence. The summons will give the date, time and place of each meeting and specify the business to be transacted, and will be accompanied by such reports as are available.
6. QUORUM
(1) Subject to (2) below, the quorum of a meeting will be one quarter of the whole number of Members of the Council. During any meeting if the Mayor counts the number of members present and declares there is not a quorum present, then the meeting will adjourn immediately. Remaining business will be considered at a time and date fixed by the Mayor. If he or she does not fix a date, the remaining business will be considered at the next ordinary meeting.
(2) Where more than one-third of the Members of the Council become disqualified at the same time, then, until the number of members in office is increased to not less than two-thirds of the whole number of members of the Council, the quorum of the Council shall be determined by reference to the members of the Council remaining qualified instead of the reference to the whole number of members of the Council.
(Note: (1) and (2) above complies with the Local Government Act
1972, Schedule 12, Part 1 and Part VI.
7. ADJOURNMENT
A majority of the Members present at any ordinary or special Council meeting may adjourn the meeting to some other day or hour.
8. RECORD OF ATTENDANCES
(1) Every Member attending the whole or part of a meeting of the Council shall sign the attendance record before the conclusion of the meeting.
(2) The Head of Law and Corporate Governance or his representative will record the attendance of Members at meetings of the Council and of Cabinet, Boards, Panels, and other appropriate meetings.
9. THE MAYOR AND DEPUTY MAYOR
(1) The Mayor
(a) The Mayor will be elected annually by the Council from among the Councillors.
(b) The Mayor will, unless he or she resigns or becomes disqualified, continue in office until his successor becomes entitled to act as Mayor.
(c) During his/her term of office the Mayor will continue to be a member of the Council notwithstanding the provision of the Local Government Act 1972 relating to the retirement of councillors.
(2) Election of the Mayor
(a) The election of the Mayor will be the first business transacted at the annual meeting of the Council.
(b) If apart from Section (1)(c) above or Section 3(b) below, the person presiding at the meeting would have ceased to be a member of the Council, he or she will not be entitled to vote in the election except in accordance with subsection (c) below.
(c) In the case of an equality of votes the person presiding at the meeting will give a casting vote in addition to any other vote he or she may have.
(3) Deputy Mayor
(a) The Council will appoint a Member of the Council to be Deputy Mayor of the Council.
(b) The Deputy Mayor will, unless he or she resigns or becomes disqualified, hold office until immediately after the election of a Mayor at the next annual meeting of the Council and during that time will continue to be a member of the Council notwithstanding the provision of the Local Government Act 1972 relating to the retirement of councillors.
(c) Subject to any Rules of Procedure made by the Council, anything authorised or required to be done by, to or before the Mayor may be done by, to or before the Deputy Mayor.
(4) Chair of Meeting of Council
(a) At any meeting of the Council the Mayor, if present, shall preside.
(b) If the Mayor is absent from any meeting of the Council, then
the Deputy Mayor of the Council, if present shall preside.
(c) If both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Council are absent from a meeting of the Council; another member of the Council chosen by the members of the Council present shall preside.
10. PROCEDURE FOR THE SELECTION OF MAYOR
(1) At the ordinary meeting of the Council held during the month of March any two members of the Council may recommend in writing addressed to the Chief Executive any other member or members of the Council (except the Mayor then in office) for nomination as Mayor for the ensuing Municipal year and any member or members so recommended shall be invited by the Head of Law and Corporate Governance to express in writing prior to the said ordinary meeting of the Council his or her willingness to accept such office if duly elected at the next following Annual Meeting.
(2) At the said ordinary meeting of the Council the person presiding shall announce the name or names of those members who have been recommended and have expressed their willingness to accept office and shall ask for those members (but no others) to be formally proposed and seconded.
(3) If only one member is proposed and seconded and is willing to accept the office if elected, that member shall thereupon be offered the Mayoralty for the ensuing Municipal year.
(4) If two or more members are proposed and seconded and are willing to accept the office if elected, the members of the Council then present shall be invited to vote by rising in their places for the candidate of their choice, each member having one vote. If one candidate receives a majority vote of more than one half of those present and voting that candidate shall be offered the Mayoralty.
In the event of no candidate receiving such a majority vote the candidate receiving the lowest number of votes shall be eliminated and a further vote by Members rising in their places shall be taken and so on until such a majority is given in favour of one candidate having the majority vote who shall thereupon be offered the Mayoralty. In the event of more than one candidate having the lowest number of votes, all the candidates who tie with the lowest number of votes shall be eliminated except that when such action would eliminate all but one candidate there shall be a vote to determine which one candidate of those with the equal number of votes shall be included in the next vote in the procedure.
(5) In the event of an equality of voting between the last two candidates the person presiding at the meeting shall have a casting vote.
(6) In the event of the procedure being followed prior to Municipal Elections and the Mayor Elect and or the Deputy Mayor Elect not being re-elected to the Council the Head of Law and Corporate Governance shall circulate immediately all Members of the Council seeking new nominations for consideration at the first ordinary meeting of the newly elected Council in accordance with the procedure outlined above.
(7) In the event of the Mayoralty becoming vacant for any reason during any Municipal year the above procedure shall be followed at the ordinary meeting of the Council next following the arising of the vacancy in order to select a Mayor for the remainder of that Municipal Year.
11. POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE MAYOR AS CHAIR OF THE COUNCIL MEETING
Any power or duty of the Mayor in relation to the conduct of a meeting may be exercised by the person presiding at the meeting.
Where these rules apply to Cabinet, Statutory Board and Panel meetings, references to the Chair also include the Chair of Cabinet, Statutory Boards and Panels.
12. ORDER OF BUSINESS
(1) Annual Meeting
The annual meeting will:-
(a) elect a person to preside if the Mayor or Deputy Mayor is not present;
(b) elect the Mayor;
(c) give a vote of thanks to the ex-Mayor;
(d) elect the Deputy Mayor;
(e) appoint the Mayor’s Chaplain;
(f) approve the minutes of the last meeting;
(g) approve a programme of ordinary meetings of the Council for the year;
(h) receive the Election Return for any elections held during the previous municipal year; and
(i) consider any business set out in the notice convening the meeting.
(2) Ordinary Meetings
The ordinary meeting will:-
(a) elect a person to preside if the Mayor or Deputy Mayor is not present;
(b) approve the minutes of the last-meeting;
(c) receive any declarations of interest from Members;
(d) consider any business specially brought forward by the Mayor;
(e) receive questions from and provide answers to, the public in accordance with the public question time procedure under Rule 17 below;
(f) consider any requests from persons who wish to address the Council as a deputation in accordance with the procedure under Rule 22 below;
(g) consider any requests from persons who wish to present a petition in accordance with Rule 23 below.
(h) receive and consider reports from the Cabinet and from any Statutory Boards or Panels of the Council and to call upon the appropriate Member to answer questions on any of those reports (see Rule 19 below);
(i) consider motions;
(j) consider any other business specified in the summons to the meeting;
(k) provide answers to questions from members in relation to the general work or procedures of the Council which cannot be raised upon business before the Council (see Rule 16 below);
(l) receive answers to questions from Members in relation to decisions of the Cabinet or of a statutory Board which have been taken under delegated powers (see Rule 20 below);
(m) receive answers to questions from members on the discharge of the functions of the Dorset Combined Fire Authority and the Dorset Police Authority (see Rule 18 below);
(n) receive any Mayor’s communications.
(3) Ordinary Meetings in April
The ordinary meeting in April will:-
(a) elect the Leader;
(b) be told by the Leader about the composition (size/portfolios) of the Cabinet for the coming year and the names of the Councillors he or she has chosen to be members of the Cabinet;
(c) decide the allocation of seats to political groups in accordance with the political balance rules;
(d) receive nominations from the political groups regarding the members to serve on the Scrutiny and Review Panels, the Standards Board, the Statutory Boards and other bodies, which together, form the Council’s decision making process;
(e) receive nominations from the political groups in accordance with the agreed scheme for the appointment of members to serve on each outside body;
EXCEPT that in a year when there is a full election of Councillors the appointments will be made at a Special meeting of the Council to be held in the next week following the elections.
13. VARIATION OF ORDER OF BUSINESS
The Mayor may, with the consent of the Council, and, subject to any statutory requirements, vary the order of business to give precedence to any matter.
14. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
The Minutes of the last meeting will be taken as read if a copy of them has been sent to each Member with the summons to attend the meeting. No motion or discussion shall be allowed on these minutes except as to their accuracy and any objection on that ground must be made by motion.
15. MAYOR’S COMMUNICATIONS
The Mayor at his discretion may draw to the attention of the Council any matter he or she deems appropriate.
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