A row has broken out on the new South Lanarkshire Council administration after a Labour representative said she was placed on committees she had “not legally consented to being on”.
Councillor Monique McAdams expressed concern during a full council meeting, saying she had not received clear answers at a party level.
The East Kilbride East representative raised the issue of being added to committees by council and Labour group leader Joe Fagan, that she did not want to be on.
An item detailing membership of committees for the next five years was presented to elected members to note the information. Membership of committees is the responsibility of the political party the councillor is a member of, and Councillor McAdams stated that she had attempted to deal with the issue at a party level but no resolution was forthcoming.
She said: “When we all got elected, and 64 of us are very lucky to be in a privileged position, I got the highest amount of Labour votes in East Kilbride. I also got the second highest amount of Labour votes out of the 30 candidates who stood and the sixth highest number of votes out of the 143 candidates who stood.
“The reason why I pointed this out is because, going with democracy, I have no political voice on this committee other than at full council because I have had my resource committees, my political committees, taken off me as reflected in the papers.
“Also, there are committees I’ve been put on that I have not legally consented to being on. I have written to my business manager, the chief executive and our general secretary – who I’ve had a very productive meeting with this week – and I have explained very clearly that I do not consent to the committees that I have been put on.
"So, legally what I would ask is, if I have not consented for my name to be on a legal document, can it be put through full council as a legal document that is still competent if it is going against my wishes?”
Provost Margaret Cooper said: “Councillor McAdam, this is not a matter for discussion at a full council meeting. It’s a matter of discussion between the leader of your group and the business manager in regard to the committees that you’re allocated.”
Chief executive Cleland Sneddon said: “As the elected member is a member of a political group in the council, the nominations have come from that political group, the discussion is being referred to as an internal group discussion and should be taken up there.
“In respect of what’s in the papers today, that’s what has been notified to officers by those groups and if the elected member either disputes the terms of their nominations or is minded not to be a member of that group then they need to notify officers or take that up within their group, but it is not a matter for full council.”
Councillor McAdams asked again if the papers presented to the full council would be legally competent if they were passed without her consent to be a member of the committees.
She said: “I have actually let officers know when they sent me out details of when committees would be, but they’re not actually committees that I had agreed to be on.
“If there is something further that I need to do other than take it up with my own group, which I have with the general secretary, then can you please let me know? My question was 'are the council papers legally competent if they have my name on it'?
"That says that I’m basically going to be legally put down at full council for this to go through as a council paper. Is it competent if I am stating for the record, I also have it in writing, that I did not consent to being on these committees, so I’m not giving my consent, are the papers competent?”
Geraldine McCann, head of legal services, said: “I can confirm that the paper before the council today is a competent paper in that it complied with the arrangements in place with the council.
"So the political groups are given a number of places, it’s up to the political groups to then nominate. If there is any dispute about nomination then you’d take that up with your political group, that is not something that the council would deal with.”
In the aftermath of the meeting, Councillor McAdams said: “With the contribution I made at full council, the words speak for themselves. I appreciate the warm support I got from council colleagues across the political divide, who understood why I needed to raise the issue and supported my grounds for doing so.”
Council and Labour groupleader, Joe Fagan, said: “The Provost ruled that this was an internal matter and so we will not be making public comments at this time.”
Councillor McAdams is a member of seven committees - equal opportunities forum; appeals panel and grievance and disputes panel; East Kilbride area committee; climate change and sustainability committee; financial resources scrutiny forum; licensing committee and the planning committee.
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