Issue - meetings
Review of Monitoring Officer Arrangements
Meeting: 21/09/2022 - Cabinet (Item 62)
62 Review of Monitoring Officer Arrangements 
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Purpose
For Cabinet to consider the Chief Executive’s review of the Council’s monitoring officer arrangements, the retained officer structure, and key temporary roles critical to the delivery of the Council’s emerging priorities.
Recommendation
That Cabinet resolves to:
a) Support the recruitment of a full time Director of Governance & Development to act as the Council’s Monitoring Officer.
b) Request that the Performance and Appointments Committee be requested to consider the terms and conditions for the Director of Governance & Development and any consequential amendments to those of the retained officer structure.
c) Support the conversion of the following temporary roles into permanent roles into permanent roles in light of the central role they will play in delivering the Shared Prosperity Fund and the Council’s emerging priorities:
· Market Towns Officer
· Climate Change Manager
d) Review other temporary roles relevant to West Oxfordshire through the 23/24 budget process to consider permanent contracts for those roles that are needed on an ongoing basis.
e) Give consideration to extending the temporary contract for the Biodiversity/Countryside Land Management Officer role to allow this role to be considered through the 23/24 budget process.
f) Note that the funding for the roles set out above be in the first instance be financed from the New Initiatives Funding Reserve previously approved by Council pending any permanent funding being approved in the 2023/24 budget process.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Enright (Deputy Leader) introduced this item. He paid tribute to the support provided by Susan Sale who is the Council’s interim Monitoring Officer. He emphasised the importance of the Monitoring Officer role and explained that the proposal was to appoint a full time Director of Governance and Development who would also be the Council’s Monitoring Officer. Other posts would be converted from temporary to permanent to support the Council’s emerging priorities.
In discussion it was agreed that the Job Description for the Director of Governance and Development should be amended so that key responsibility 3 reads ‘Develop an innovative and commercial approach across the Council’ deleting reference to ‘within your specific service areas’.
Resolved by Cabinet to
a) Support the recruitment of a full time Director of Governance & Development to act as the Council’s Monitoring Officer.
b) Request that the Performance and Appointments Committee be requested to consider the terms and conditions for the Director of Governance & Development and any consequential amendments to those of the retained officer structure.
c) Support the conversion of the following temporary roles into permanent roles into permanent roles in light of the central role they will play in delivering the Shared Prosperity Fund and the Council’s emerging priorities:
· Market Towns Officer
· Climate Change Manager
d) Review other temporary roles relevant to West Oxfordshire through the 23/24 budget process to consider permanent contracts for those roles that are needed on an ongoing basis.
e) Give consideration to extending the temporary contract for the Biodiversity/Countryside Land Management Officer role to allow this role to be considered through the 23/24 budget process.
f) Note that the funding for the roles set out in (c) above be in the first instance financed from the New Initiatives Funding Reserve previously approved by Council pending any permanent funding being approved in the 2023/24 budget process.