Executive decisions are all decisions which by law are
not reserved to the council or its committees.
He must operate within the policy and budgetary framework agreed
by the council, and the constitution. Of course, the Mayor cannot
practically take every decision so he delegates most of his
decision-making to officers.
What is the Executive?
The Mayor must appoint a cabinet of between two and nine members,
picked from the elected councillors. The Executive is made up of
the Mayor and Cabinet and when it meets collectively they are known
as the
Cabinet.
Each cabinet member is in charge of a portfolio, rather like a
Government minister. The portfolios are based on specific services
that cut across these areas such as social inclusion, customer
services and regeneration. The Mayor can, if he wishes, give these
councillors decision making powers (see
Mayoral scheme of delegation Word, 97k). At
present, however, the role of the cabinet is advisory.
By law the Mayor must appoint a Deputy Mayor from amongst the
cabinet. However, there is no defined role for him/her unless the
Mayor dies or is incapacitated. Of course, the Mayor can go on
holiday and leave specific authority to the Deputy Mayor to act in
his/her place. The Deputy Mayor is Councillor Christine
Bowden.
What's the role of the Mayoral Advisers?
In addition to cabinet members, the Mayor has appointed
exective advisers. These are other councillors who may be asked
to advise the Mayor on a particular issue, service or project, but
they are not part of the executive. They cannot have delegated
authority to take decisions on behalf of the Mayor.
See
Cabinet/Executive Advisers for the details of the councillors
who have been appointed as cabinet members or mayoral advisers,
together with their portfolios.
Mayor's Scheme of Delegation
The Mayor announces his/her scheme of delegation at the Annual
Meeting. In the scheme of delegation, the Mayor sets out who will
make executive decisions; see
Mayoral Scheme of Delegation (Word, 97k) for
the current scheme. The Mayor has decided to retain all
executive powers except those delegated to officers. He will
take decisions in one of two ways:
- Alone at Mayoral Proceedings sometimes in consultation with an
individual cabinet member or mayoral adviser;
- At a cabinet meeting so that he can consult all the cabinet
members and mayoral advisers before he takes the decision.
Types of decisions made by the Mayor
The Mayor will make 2
types of executive decisions, known as key and non-key
decisions.
Key decisions: Key decisions are decisions of the
Executive which either result in the Council incurring expenditure
or making savings of more than £½million; or which are significant
in terms of the effects on two or more wards. Some key decisions
are delegated to officers. All key decisions must be published in
the Forward Plan, which comes out every month and covers the next
4-month period. (see key decisions and Mayor's forward plan.)
Non-key decisions: These are decisions which may
be taken by the Mayor or by officers on behalf of the Executive.
The vast majority of council decisions fall into this category and
they are taken routinely by officers within the policies laid down
by Members.
The Mayor, following consultation with cabinet members and mayoral
advisers at a cabinet meeting will recommend the budget and key
policy proposals to the full council. This is known as the 'policy
and budgetary framework'.
Mayor's Scheme of Delegation (Word document,
98kb) |