Submission Documents: (d) Standing Orders "Council notes with concern the recent tactic of excluding opposition members of committees from debate and voting. Council agrees that this practice is undemocratic and represents a flaw in the interpretation of Council Standing Orders, exploited for partisan reasons. In order to ensure fairness Council resolves to amend Standing Orders 26.1 and 26.2 to read as follows. 26.1 The Provost may check a Councillor for irrelevance, tedious repetition, failure to address the Chair, unbecoming language, reflections of a personal character on another Member or any breach of order and may direct such Councillor speaking to discontinue his or her speech. In doing so the Provost will identify the misconduct which will be recorded in the minute of the meeting. 26.2 In the event of persistent misconduct of a Councillor by disregarding the ruling of the Provost, or behaving improperly or offensively, or using racist or sexist or unbecoming language, or wilfully obstructing the business of the meeting, the Provost may direct the Councillor to refrain from speaking during the remainder of the debate on the matter under discussion. In doing so the Provost will identify the misconduct which will be recorded in the minute of the meeting. Insert a new 26.3 In the event of further misconduct by the same Councillor the Provost will have the option to:- 1. Move that the Councillor named "be not further heard". This motion will require to be seconded and the named Councillor will have the right to reply to it before the motion is put to a simple vote. The misconduct giving rise to the motion will be identified by the Provost and recorded in the minute of the meeting. If the Councillor named continues the misconduct after the motion has been carried and does not heed a further warning from the Provost (which warning together with the misconduct that gave rise to it will be recorded in the minute of the meeting), the Provost is empowered to require the Councillor to leave the meeting". Help Icon

This is the list of documents available for the submission (d) Standing Orders "Council notes with concern the recent tactic of excluding opposition members of committees from debate and voting. Council agrees that this practice is undemocratic and represents a flaw in the interpretation of Council Standing Orders, exploited for partisan reasons. In order to ensure fairness Council resolves to amend Standing Orders 26.1 and 26.2 to read as follows. 26.1 The Provost may check a Councillor for irrelevance, tedious repetition, failure to address the Chair, unbecoming language, reflections of a personal character on another Member or any breach of order and may direct such Councillor speaking to discontinue his or her speech. In doing so the Provost will identify the misconduct which will be recorded in the minute of the meeting. 26.2 In the event of persistent misconduct of a Councillor by disregarding the ruling of the Provost, or behaving improperly or offensively, or using racist or sexist or unbecoming language, or wilfully obstructing the business of the meeting, the Provost may direct the Councillor to refrain from speaking during the remainder of the debate on the matter under discussion. In doing so the Provost will identify the misconduct which will be recorded in the minute of the meeting. Insert a new 26.3 In the event of further misconduct by the same Councillor the Provost will have the option to:- 1. Move that the Councillor named "be not further heard". This motion will require to be seconded and the named Councillor will have the right to reply to it before the motion is put to a simple vote. The misconduct giving rise to the motion will be identified by the Provost and recorded in the minute of the meeting. If the Councillor named continues the misconduct after the motion has been carried and does not heed a further warning from the Provost (which warning together with the misconduct that gave rise to it will be recorded in the minute of the meeting), the Provost is empowered to require the Councillor to leave the meeting"..

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Name Type of Document Access View Document
Item Minute - 29 October 2009 Minute Public Open Document in PDF Format
(41 KB)

 

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