From Councillor Joy Andrews to the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny:
Could you please update the council on the proceedings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
From Councillor Clark to the Chair of Policy and Resources:
In view of your questionable decision not to allow Councillor Potter questions at Policy and Resources could you please inform council:
i. Which organisations are associated with iese referred to in Policy and Resources (15/06/17)?
ii. a) Which of these companies have done work for RDC?
b) Have you examined the tendering process?
iii. How much has been spent with each organisation?
iv. What work has been done so far?
v. What commitments have already been given for future work and payments?
From Councillor Potter to the Chair of Policy and Resources:
In view of your questionable decision not to allow questions to officers at Policy and Resources could you please produce for all councillors:
i. All charges for services over each of the last 6 years
ii. The calculation and hence justification for increasing charges for any services by an inflation busting 5.4%
Minutes:
1. Councillor Joy Andrews submitted the following question:
To Councillor Clark, Chair of Overview and Scrutiny:
“Could you please update the council on the proceedings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee."
The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, Councillor Clark replied
"I was going to now still be in the position of having to point out that I was hoping that the Scrutiny Committee's main topic would be looking into bullying but as we have that later on the agenda, I don't think there's any point in dwelling on that too long. Other than to make the general point that I would make after that debate and, if it goes the way I suspect it will go, is that it is something that we have to look into very very seriously. We have to look into it because we need to know whether it's happening. The staff survey shows that it may well be. We need to know which parts of the Council in which it is happening. We need to know if people are being accused of bullying and aren't bullies. So it's a very large piece of work to be doing. I'm delighted to be Chairing the Committee that is liable to be looking into it but I don't think that we can expect a quick result out of it. I realise that I want to save other things for the debate but as the Chair I'll be delighted to look into it. The other issue that came out of that meeting, we looked at air quality, which I hope now goes below looking into the bullying one and the third one was dog fouling and that is changing the way it is handled in the Council, if that's the right phrase for it, and on that basis I'm hoping that's dealt with number three. The other issue that was raised in the meeting is the question, we still appear in Ryedale to be able to have sewage in a street in a village and it's not been unknown in other parts of Ryedale and they're asking us to which organisations deal with the sewage - not what causes it - this Council's done flooding with others to great depth. But what happens when there is sewage in the street, who deals with it, how's it disinfected etc. and on that basis if anybody has any incidence of sewage arriving in Ryedale, please let the Scrutiny Committee know."
2. Councillor Clark submitted the following question:
To Councillor Ives, Chair of Policy and Resources:
"In view of your questionable decision not to allow Councillor Potter questions at Policy and Resources could you please inform council:
i. Which organisations are associated with iese referred to in Policy and Resources (15/06/17)?
ii. a) Which of these companies have done work for RDC?
b) Have you examined the tendering process?
iii. How much has been spent with each organisation?
iv. What work has been done so far?
v. What commitments have already been given for future work and payments?"
The Chair of Policy and Resources, Councillor Ives replied
"I outlined at the P&R Committee why I believe that it is only right that Members ask questions in advance of meeting to Officers and not at the meeting, so I do not intend to revisit that. First of all you asked which organisations are associated with iese referred to in Policy and Resources (15/06/17)? The following associates have done work for the Council; Inner Circle Consulting in relation to the asset review, Work Folk Limited which have provided HR support and Waste Consulting which have helped with the Streetscene review. All the organisations that I've just listed have done work for this Council and therefore that answers your next question in relation to which ones have done work. You then asked have I examined the tendering process? I have not examined the tendering process as the work has been undertaken through iese and therefore no tender process was required. You then asked how much has been spent on the organisation to date? In the 2015/16 fiscal year £41234 was spent, (I will provide a copy of this answer afterwards if you prefer) and in the 2016/17 £160,456 has been spent. You then asked what work has been done so far? The expenditure covers the delivery of the transformation programme achieving savings of over £1 million to date and includes the delivery of a new operating model, service redesign and the delivery of the use of technology for the future. You then asked what commitments have already been given for future work and payments? So far there is an outstanding payment of iese in relation to the review of the Council assets for the sum of £28,000. Members may remember there was a briefing at the beginning of June - that briefing and the work done cost £12,000 roughly and subsequent to that briefing work has continued and a further £28,000 has been spent but that invoice has not been paid yet."
Councillor Clark asked the following supplementary question:
"I wonder if the Chair of P&R would agree with me that these are large sums of money and he may have skirted round, or he may not have, whether or not this is value for money because the question was how much has been spent and what work has been done so far? If the presentation that we had in January is £12,000 worth of presentation, then I have grave doubts about the rest of it. It also leaves me in the sad position of wondering why some of the rewards we've got and, would Councillor Ives agree with this, that are sponsored by iESE? Is it not surprising that they are prepared to sponsor this Council getting awards when they have that sort of amount of money coming in with no tendering process?"
Councillor Ives replied:
"I do agree that these are large sums of money and as the custodians of the public purse we have a duty to ensure that every penny piece of tax payers money is spent wisely and well. In my capacity as Chairman of P&R, subsequent to the Members' briefing, I have asked questions of Officers in relation to spend and the value that we gain from that. So, such discussions have taken place. Like you I will ensure that full scrutiny is given to every penny piece that this Council spends."
3. Councillor Potter submitted the following question:
To Councillor Ives, Chair of Policy and Resources:
"In view of your questionable decision not to allow questions to officers at Policy and Resources could you please produce for all councillors:
i. All charges for services over each of the last 6 years
ii. The calculation and hence justification for increasing charges for any services by an inflation busting 5.4%"
The Chair of Policy and Resources, Councillor Ives replied
"You have just been provided with a copy of all fees and charges which you have a paper copy in front of you now. In relation to the justification for the 5.4% increase which is the 4.5% plus VAT which you alluded to. The reason for that officer recommendation is that it's in accordance with an amendment made by Members in October 2014 as part of the decision making process on the budget strategy for 2015/16. Of course it is the gift of this Council to review that rate and that will be part of the debate that we have later on this evening."