Agenda and minutes

1  To highlight reports or appendices which officers have identified as containing exempt information, and where officers consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons outlined in the report.

2  To consider whether or not to accept the officers recommendation in respect of the above information.

3  If so, to formally pass the following resolution:-

RESOLVED – That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following parts of the agenda designated as containing exempt information on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information, as follows:

   No exempt items have been identified.

None.

To identify items which have been admitted to the agenda by the Chair for consideration.

(The special circumstances shall be specified in the minutes.)

None.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Michael Healey, Rita Ighade, Roderic Morgan

To confirm as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting held on 21^st September 2018.

The Chair explained to the Board that since the previous meeting, Colin Halliwell had resigned from the Board. The Chair thanked him of behalf of the Board for his work.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 21 September 2018 be approved as a correct record.

The Board is requested to discuss and agree an appropriate response to the current issues and agree what the programme of future meetings of Tenant Scrutiny Board should be.

The Chair explained to the Board that prior to this meeting, he had planned the coming municipal years’ work with Housing Leeds Scrutiny Officers. However, it was now felt it would be difficult to deliver all aspects of the plan due to the low number of members on the Board at the present time, especially given that recent attendance has been affected through sickness.

The Chair explained that he had initially proposed the Board be suspended and relayed this suggestion to the Scrutiny Officer around two weeks ago. However, in retrospect and after speaking with the Vice Chair he appreciated this should be a matter for the Board to decide, not just the Chair. The Chair noted that the management of the Board falls between Governance Services at Civic Hall, Scrutiny Officers at Navigation House, and also the members of this Board and all three need to agree on changes to this Board.

It was noted that the number of recruits to the Board has been low in the last 3½ years and this has been recognised as a problem by Scrutiny Officers in the past. In response to this, the Chair suggested that the Board should also be involved with the recruitment of new members, as opposed to leaving this solely with Scrutiny Officers, and going forward the Board should meet with Scrutiny Officers to discuss what the progress has been with recruitment.

The Chair also commented that whilst he felt there should be no Chair during any suspension of the Board, and was prepared to stand down, he had since been advised this cannot happen. The Chair asked that the Board make a decision as to whether he should stand down.

SB noted that she felt he shouldn’t stand down given his experience and knowledge of the board and being Chair and because of him being passionate about the Board and its success. JW noted there currently is no natural successor and supported the current Chair to remain.

RESOLVED – The Board decided to keep the current Chair in place.

The Chair commented that, looking back, he felt issues with the Board seem to have occurred since March, and in particular since the previous Scrutiny Officer left the role. The Chair explained that he had expressed at the time that it would have been useful for the previous Scrutiny Officer to remain supporting the Board until the conclusion of the prevailing inquiry, however a decision was made by management at Navigation House that the Scrutiny Officer would leave the Board with immediate effect. The Chair noted at the time was not appropriate given the previous Scrutiny Officer had been replaced with a, new Officer who couldn’t be involved with that inquiry due to a previous conflict of interest.

The Chair suggested that he had expressed a hope that a handover with the previous Scrutiny Officer would have taken place in order that there was a continuation of the process the Board worked to, but although there had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

To be confirmed based on this meetings discussion.

Friday 21st December 2018 at 1:15pm

(Pre meeting for all Board members at 1:00pm)

THE MEETING CLOSED AT 2:50 PM