Minutes:
The Democratic Services Manager advised the Committee that there were a number of Outside Bodies which requested that a Member or several Members sit on the Board of their Body. Accordingly, as it was the start of the new Council term, these appointments needed to be made.
He explained that several appointments to Outside Bodies were determined by the Department of the Environment to fall within the process established in the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 for Positions of Responsibility. Those were arc 21, the Partnership Panel, the Northern Ireland Housing Council, the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association and the Policing and Community Safety Partnership and its 4 District Partnerships. Those appointments were determined using the d’Hondt system of proportionality alongside the appointments for the Lord Mayor, the Deputy Lord Mayor and the Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons of the 5 Standing Committees of the Council and these had been appointed at the Annual meeting of the Council in May.
In considering the requests for appointments to Outside Bodies which were not considered to be Positions of Responsibility, the Council was free to choose any methodology it so wished. However, in keeping with the process of proportionality which was enshrined in the 2014 Act and which had been employed in the Council for a number of years, the Committee had approved of the use of the Sainte Lague system.
The process was for all of the appointments to Outside Bodies to be grouped together in one pool and the Party Leaders at a meeting on 14th June had selected the positions set out in the appendix below.
In order for a process to be established which dealt with any additional requests from Outside Bodies for Council representation during the Council Term, it was recommended that the party or parties who would have had the next available choice(s) under the Sainte Lague table would be asked to nominate a representative(s).
With regard to NILGA, its Constitution required that the Council’s 10 nominations reflect the overall balance of the political parties on the Council. That would not be able to be achieved if the 10 positions were to be included in a larger pool of positions. Therefore, for that reason, the Party Leaders had agreed that the 10 nominations be allocated using a separate Sainte Lague exercise.
The outcome of a Sainte Lague exercise provided for 3 Sinn Fein, 2 DUP, 2 Alliance, 1 SDLP, 1 Green and 1 PBPA nominations:
Appointments to Outside Bodies
14th June, 2019
National Association of Councillors
SF |
Councillor Magennis |
SF |
Councillor Magee |
DUP |
Alderman Sandford |
DUP |
Councillor T Kelly |
DUP |
Councillor Pankhurst |
PBPA |
Councillor Ferguson |
UUP |
Alderman Rodgers |
ALL |
Councillor Hanvey |
Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA)
SF |
Councillor Corr |
SF |
Councillor Garrett |
SF |
Councillor Murphy |
DUP |
Alderman Haire |
DUP |
Alderman Sandford |
ALL |
Councillor Howard |
ALL |
Councillor Mulholland |
SDLP |
Councillor de Faoite |
GREEN |
Councillor Groogan |
PBPA |
Councillor Ferguson |
Belfast City Centre Management Board
Green |
Councillor Flynn |
SF |
Councillor Corr |
George Best Belfast City Airport Forum
DUP |
Alderman Haire |
PUP |
Councillor Kyle |
Visit Belfast
SF |
Councillor Walsh |
DUP |
Councillor Cobain |
ALL |
Councillor Hanvey |
SDLP |
Councillor McCusker |
Active Belfast Ltd Board
SF |
Councillor Carson |
SF |
Councillor Corr |
SF |
Councillor McLaughlin |
DUP |
Councillor Newton |
Association of Port Health Authorities – Executive Board
SDLP |
Councillor Heading |
Belfast Hills Partnership
SF |
Councillor Corr |
Board of the Ulster Orchestra Society Limited
SDLP |
Councillor Whyte |
Cathedral Quarter Trust
ALL |
Councillor McAllister |
DUP |
Councillor Pankhurst |
Grand Opera House Trust
UUP |
Alderman Copeland |
Groundwork Northern Ireland
DUP |
Councillor Dorrian |
Lagan Canal Restoration Trust
SF |
Councillor McAteer |
Lagan Rural Partnership Local Action Group
All |
Councillor Nicholl |
Lagan Valley Regional Park Advisory Committee
ALL |
Councillor Nicholl |
SF |
Councillor McAteer |
DUP |
Councillor Bunting |
Linenhall Library Board
PBPA |
Councillor Matt Collins |
Local Strategic Partnership on Travellers Issues
SF |
Councillor Groves |
PBPA |
Councillor Michael Collins |
Lyric Theatre Education Advisory Panel
ALL |
Councillor McDonough-Brown |
GREEN |
Councillor Groogan |
Northern Ireland Amenity Council
ALL |
Councillor McReynolds |
Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme
DUP |
Councillor Graham |
DUP |
Councillor Bunting |
Somme Advisory Council
DUP |
Councillor Graham |
ALL |
Councillor Long |
SDLP |
Councillor McKeown |
Tall Ships
DUP |
Alderman Kingston |
SDLP |
Councillor de Faoite |
Sustainable Community &Demographics Working Group
GREEN |
Councillor O’Hara |
NILGA Policy & Learning Network - Reform, Devolution and Improvement
SF |
Councillor McAteer |
NILGA Policy & Learning Network - Local Economic Development, Investment and International Affairs
ALL |
Councillor Hanvey |
NILGA Policy & Learning Network - Place Shaping and Infrastructure
SF |
Councillor S Baker |
NILGA Policy & Learning Network - Elected Member Development
SF |
Councillor Canavan |
NILGA Policy & Learning Network - Health, Social and Environmental Wellbeing
SF |
Councillor Donnelly |
The Committee:
1. Noted that the Council had agreed that all of the appointments to Outside Bodies would be grouped into one overall pool for the purposes of allocating positions.
2. Agreed to nominate the representatives to NILGA as a separate one off exercise as set out in the report.
3. Noted that the Council had agreed to use the Sainte Lague methodology to provide an order of party political choices of these positions.
4. Agreed to appoint the positions on Outside Bodies as set out above.
5. Agreed , should any other requests be received for Council representation on Outside Bodies during the Council Term, the party or parties who would have had the next available choice(s) under the Sainte Lague table would be asked to nominate a representative(s).
Supporting documents: