Organisational
May. 11th, 2018 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustMeetings of the Parish Council are open to the public (that is, we can attend, and if we wish, record; I suspect there are limited circumstances in which non-councillors can also speak, but they are strictly defined). I'm not saying that I will make a habit of attending, but yesterdays meeting was the first ever of the new committee, which is, in its small way, a historic occasion, so I went along.
The meeting was entirely taken up with organisational matters. I had expected there to be a certain amount of formal business, and that the Council would have to start by electing a Chair, but I had not anticipated that the entire remainder of the two hour meeting would be taken up with agreeing and fine-tuning the standing orders. It is recognised in this household that the Bible of the labour movement is not Marx on Capital but Citrine on Chairmanship, so I probably ought to have anticipated that the Parish Council would not be entirely dissimilar.
The agenda had been drawn up by the Interim Clerk (interim because another thing the Council will have to do is appoint a Clerk), who I think is a County Council employee, clearly very good at keeping things running smoothly, which is useful when you aren't sure how you are supposed to proceed, but can be a problem when - how can I put this? - your aim is to shake up the normal smooth running of things. He found it difficult, for example, to cope with the Council's first two changes to the Standing Orders, which were to change 'Chairman' to 'Chair', and to change all the pronouns to non-gender specific ones. (I know, I know, these are very 20th century problems. Welcome to County Durham.) I don't think there was any malice in his insistence on referring to the Chair as Chairman, and she took it with good grace, but it grated on me throughout the meeting.
Another small example: it is up to the Council to choose its own name, and although the County Coucil has been insisting it is a Parish Council, it could choose to be known as Durham Town Council - and there is a motion down to discuss that. Meanwhile, a website has already been set up with the name City of Durham Parish Council...
All that is in the future. The one thing the Council did, even before considering its standing orders, was to elect a chair and vice chair. There was one nomination for Chair, for one of the LibDem County Councillors: the LibDems are the largest party on the Council, with just over half the members, so this made sense (and she made a good job of chairing this first, very procedural meeting). One of the Labour members was nominated for Vice Chair, but the LibDems nominated one of their members for that, too. Since one of the LibDEms had been unable to attend the meeting, the vote was tied, and the Chair used her casting vote to win the post for the LibDEm nominee. I was sorry to see the Council setting off in this pattern of party power play: there is so much on which all the candidates were putting forward the same arguments, and I think the Council would be a lot stronger if it was demonstrably non-partisan. The County Council tries to dismiss the City's opposition to its plans as politically motivated, and we shouldn't be making that easier for them. It's a minor point, but the Labour nominee (apart from his individual merits) also represents the City's other ward, and so would have spread the geographical representation.
If this is a sign of political divides to come, they weren't evident in last night's meeting. I look forward to seeing what happens when the Council moves on to the substantive work it was set up to do.
The meeting was entirely taken up with organisational matters. I had expected there to be a certain amount of formal business, and that the Council would have to start by electing a Chair, but I had not anticipated that the entire remainder of the two hour meeting would be taken up with agreeing and fine-tuning the standing orders. It is recognised in this household that the Bible of the labour movement is not Marx on Capital but Citrine on Chairmanship, so I probably ought to have anticipated that the Parish Council would not be entirely dissimilar.
The agenda had been drawn up by the Interim Clerk (interim because another thing the Council will have to do is appoint a Clerk), who I think is a County Council employee, clearly very good at keeping things running smoothly, which is useful when you aren't sure how you are supposed to proceed, but can be a problem when - how can I put this? - your aim is to shake up the normal smooth running of things. He found it difficult, for example, to cope with the Council's first two changes to the Standing Orders, which were to change 'Chairman' to 'Chair', and to change all the pronouns to non-gender specific ones. (I know, I know, these are very 20th century problems. Welcome to County Durham.) I don't think there was any malice in his insistence on referring to the Chair as Chairman, and she took it with good grace, but it grated on me throughout the meeting.
Another small example: it is up to the Council to choose its own name, and although the County Coucil has been insisting it is a Parish Council, it could choose to be known as Durham Town Council - and there is a motion down to discuss that. Meanwhile, a website has already been set up with the name City of Durham Parish Council...
All that is in the future. The one thing the Council did, even before considering its standing orders, was to elect a chair and vice chair. There was one nomination for Chair, for one of the LibDem County Councillors: the LibDems are the largest party on the Council, with just over half the members, so this made sense (and she made a good job of chairing this first, very procedural meeting). One of the Labour members was nominated for Vice Chair, but the LibDems nominated one of their members for that, too. Since one of the LibDEms had been unable to attend the meeting, the vote was tied, and the Chair used her casting vote to win the post for the LibDEm nominee. I was sorry to see the Council setting off in this pattern of party power play: there is so much on which all the candidates were putting forward the same arguments, and I think the Council would be a lot stronger if it was demonstrably non-partisan. The County Council tries to dismiss the City's opposition to its plans as politically motivated, and we shouldn't be making that easier for them. It's a minor point, but the Labour nominee (apart from his individual merits) also represents the City's other ward, and so would have spread the geographical representation.
If this is a sign of political divides to come, they weren't evident in last night's meeting. I look forward to seeing what happens when the Council moves on to the substantive work it was set up to do.
