Council - Wednesday 18 December 2024, 5:00pm - Folkestone & Hythe webcasting

Council
Wednesday, 18th December 2024 at 5:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Anita Jones
  2. Cllr Anita Jones
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  1. Cllr Anita Jones
  2. Cllr Adrian Lockwood
  3. Cllr Anita Jones
  4. Cllr Liz McShane
  5. Cllr Anita Jones
  6. Cllr Liz McShane
  7. Cllr Anita Jones
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  1. Cllr Anita Jones
  2. Councillor Tony Hills
  3. Cllr Anita Jones
  4. Cllr Jackie Meade
  5. Cllr Anita Jones
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  1. Cllr Connor McConville
  2. Cllr Anita Jones
  3. Cllr Connor McConville
  4. Cllr Anita Jones
  5. Cllr Jennifer Hollingsbee
  6. Cllr Anita Jones
  7. Cllr Liz McShane
  8. Cllr Jim Martin
  9. Cllr Anita Jones
  10. Cllr Liz McShane
  11. Cllr Connor McConville
  12. Cllr Anita Jones
  13. Cllr Liz McShane
  14. Cllr Anita Jones
  15. Cllr Liz McShane
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  1. Cllr Anita Jones
  2. Cllr Adrian Lockwood
  3. Cllr Anita Jones
  4. Webcast Finished

Cllr Anita Jones - 0:00:00
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:00:03
This meeting will be webcast live to the Internet. For those who do not wish to be recorded or filmed, you will need to leave the chamber.
For members, officers and others speaking at the meeting, it is important that the microphones are used so viewers on the webcast and others in the room may hear you.
Would anyone with a mobile phone please switch it to silent mode as they can be distracting.
opinions on matters under consideration, it is important to treat members, officers and
public speakers with respect. Please feel free to sit or stand when speaking.
So moving on to our first item, apologies for absence.
Thank you chair, it's good evening. Evening councillors, colleagues and members of the

1 Apologies for Absence

public. So we've got four apologies this evening from councillors, but we've got
Butcher, Chapman, Davison and Holgate.
Thank you.
Councillor Lockwood.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:01:00
Can I pass on apologies from Councillor Keane,
who was called at the last minute to work in Dartford.
Cllr Adrian Lockwood - 0:01:06
She's stuck on the M2 or M20.
Thank you.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:01:11
Cllr Liz McShane - 0:01:12
And we'll move to...
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:01:13
Cllr Liz McShane - 0:01:13
Oh, sorry. Another apology from Councillor Chapman, who's away.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:01:18
Thank you. Yes, we noted hers already, actually,
but thank you for reminding us.
Okay, moving on to Item 2, declarations of interest.

2 Declarations of Interest

Does anybody have any declarations of interest?
Councillor Hills.
Do we?
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:01:31
Why?
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:01:35
Why dramatise?
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:01:38
That's very broad.
Councillor Meade.
Ditto.
Thank you.
So KCC.
Okay, thanks very much.
Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:01:45
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:01:46
And we'll move on to item three, which is the appointment of director of finance.

3 Director of Finance appointment

and do we have a proposer, Councillor McConville?
Would you like to speak?
Cllr Connor McConville - 0:01:59
I'll hopefully go second to first and then I'll...
And Councillor Martin to second.
If you'd like to introduce it, please.
Cllr Connor McConville - 0:02:06
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:02:06
That's dead.
No, it's just going to be annoying, isn't it?
Thank you, everyone, for coming to what's probably going to be
rather short meeting but nonetheless very important.
And thank you to the members of the personnel committee who gave their day last week to
undertake the interview panel for the applicant for Director of Finance and to all the staff
who obviously put a lot into that process as well.
The report is in front of you.
It's very detailed.
It covers a lot of the preceding information and the process before we got to the interview
panel last Wednesday. The personnel committee, we interviewed the two candidates and we were
unanimous in terms of the candidate that we all preferred. I think just to say a little
bit about the candidate without saying any names, they showed a high level of experience
in local government finance. They seemed very keen and knowledgeable about some of our local
projects, especially the costly ones, our levelling up fund, Oderpool, etc.
They probably could have applied to be a Section 151 earlier in their career, but they were
looking for the right place to be, the right fit, and they said Folkestone and Hithe was
that.
So that was very encouraging.
They said they visited the district often, they were well known, they knew the district,
They knew the various aspects of it, not just Folkestone but the whole district.
There was a real sense that this person wanted to really work hard for the local residents
of our district.
And also they came across really strongly in their desire to build a team of staff,
empower a team of staff and develop that team of staff which is something I think in our
finance department here at our council we really need and we look forward to.
So that's a little bit about the candidate and obviously we're here because full council
has to approve any package over 100 ,000.
The candidate has accepted the lowest point on the scale for the directors which is 108 ,471
pounds and there's a 6 ,000 pound car allowance on that.
So they are starting from the very bottom of the scale which again maybe shows their
willingness to really work hard to progress up that scale.
So I'll leave it there and I propose the recommendations and hope the council will support them.
Thank you.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:04:53
So we are open for debate.
Would anybody like to speak on this?
Councillor Mrs Jenny Hollingsby.
Cllr Jennifer Hollingsbee - 0:05:01
Thank you, Chair. I would just like to endorse what Councillor McConville has said. I think
we've got an excellent candidate and also I'm really delighted that we will now have
a permanent S151 officer. I think it's really important for any organisation and particularly
with the changes that we've gone through and that we will be going through to have a permanent
officer I think would be excellent.
In terms of knowing the district, this particular candidate has got a good knowledge and has
actually done an awful lot of research about the district council and I'm sure it's going
to work very well.
Thank you.
Anybody else like to speak?
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:05:47
Councillor Martin.
Cllr Liz McShane - 0:05:50
Thank you very much, Chair.
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:05:52
I had nothing to do with this process in terms of interviews etc.
But I would like to pass my congratulations on to firstly the officers who produced a
fantastic short list.
Really three outstanding candidates.
One fell away before the interview but I think the personnel committee will agree they were
our thanks have to go to the officers who gave the personnel committee that choice and
then secondly to the personnel committee and others who spent all day interviewing these
two candidates and just really I think we've got a terrific outcome but that's a result
of an awful lot of hard work.
So thanks to everyone who was involved.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:06:51
Thank you. Councillor McShane.
Cllr Liz McShane - 0:06:53
I was just going to ask when the new candidate will start.
Apologies if I've missed that bit of information in the report, but I don't think it is in there.
Cllr Connor McConville - 0:07:03
Well, pending the vote of tonight's, if we approve the salary package,
then hopefully with a three month notice period we'd be hopeful for the 1st of April.
Which is always good to have a finance person start the tax year.
Thank you for that all sounds very positive.
So thanks to every's hard work.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:07:21
So we have three recommendations we
need to receive and note the report.
Agree the salary package and note
the subsequent report will be prepared
for Council in early 2035.
To assign the statutory responsibility
of the S 151.
So do we need to agree those separately
or can we do those together?
And are we all agreed?
Read. Lovely, thank you.
OK, so we will. Move on to item four on our agenda.
The extension of term of office of the independent member of the
Audit and Governance Committee. So we have a proposer.
Cllr Liz McShane - 0:08:07
Councillor Liz McShane and a seconder Councillor Lockwood.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:08:08
Would you like to speak on this? I'm just briefly to say that
Cllr Liz McShane - 0:08:11
It's really helpful having Andy Berber as part of the team as an outside voice and ear
to guide us.

4 Extension of term of office of independent member of the Audit and Governance Committee

So it's really an important part of being on the committee and having that extra expertise.
So I'm really glad that we've got him for another few months.
Thank you.
This is now open for debate.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:08:32
Would anybody else like to speak on this item?
Councillor Lockwood.
Thank you, Chair.
I would echo that.
Cllr Adrian Lockwood - 0:08:41
It's been very helpful. We've had some tricky issues and obviously people be aware of what's
been in the news today about changes coming up with audit and we've had audit issues here
and we've been very helpful with that. So yeah, happy to second that.
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:09:01
Thank you. So if we've got no other comments on that, our recommendations that we are receiving
and noting the report and our second one that the appointment of Andy Verburner is extended
to 31st March 2025. Do we need a show of hands or can we just, are we all agreed?
Agreed.
Wonderful, lovely short meeting. So I think I wished you a happy Christmas at the end
of the last meeting so I wish you a happy Christmas again and have a lovely break and
a wonderful New Year and I look forward to seeing everybody then. Thank you.
Thank you.