CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board meet­ing Paper 6 9^th Septem­ber 2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: ELEC­TION OF BOARD DEPUTY CONVENER

Pre­pared by: DAV­ID CAMER­ON, DIR­ECT­OR OF COR­POR­ATE SER­VICES & DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Pur­pose

This paper seeks agree­ment to the pro­cess and terms of elec­tion of the Cairngorms NPA’s Deputy Con­vener. The paper fol­lows on from the Board’s agree­ment to con­sider a change in Stand­ing Orders agreed at its meet­ing of 26 August 2022.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is recom­men­ded to:

a) Tem­por­ar­ily sus­pend stand­ing orders which provide for a three year term of office for mem­bers elec­ted as Deputy Con­vener, as provided for in para­graph 5 of this paper. b) Approve a tem­por­ary amend­ment to Stand­ing Orders provid­ing for the elec­tion of the Deputy Con­vener of Cairngorms NPA for a term end­ing 30 Septem­ber 2023 as provided for in para­graph 6 of this paper. c) Approve amend­ments provided for in para­graph 8 of this paper to imple­ment all sub­sequent elec­tions with effect from June of any cal­en­dar year and ter­min­at­ing office in June unless cur­tailed by resig­na­tion or a mem­ber ceas­ing to be a mem­ber of the Board. d) Agree the com­mence­ment of the elec­tion for the office of Deputy Con­vener from Monday 12 Septem­ber — the first busi­ness day fol­low­ing the Board – as provided for in para­graph 14 of this paper. e) Agree arrange­ments for role shar­ing elec­ted offices should be researched fur­ther with a view to estab­lish­ing pro­pos­als by June 2023.

Back­ground

1. As advised at a pre­vi­ous meet­ing, the pos­i­tion of Cairngorms NPA Deputy Con­vener becomes vacant with effect from I Octo­ber 2022.

2. The Board con­sidered the pro­cess, timetable and terms of elec­tion for the Park Authority’s Deputy Con­vener at its meet­ing of 26 August 2022. [https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​/​d​o​c​s​/​B​o​a​r​d​p​a​p​e​r​s​/​2​6​0​8​2​0​2​2​/​2​2​0​8​2​6​C​N​P​A​B​d​Paper TAADeputyConvenerElection.pdf](https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​/​d​o​c​s​/​B​o​a​r​d​p​a​p​e​r​s​/​2​6​0​8​2​0​2​2​/​2​2​0​8​2​6​C​N​P​A​B​d​Paper TAADeputyConvenerElection.pdf)

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board meet­ing Paper 6 9^th Septem­ber 2022

1. The Board agreed at this meet­ing to con­sider a change to stand­ing orders to provide for a num­ber of poten­tial amend­ments to the approved Con­vener / Deputy Con­vener elec­tion pro­cess. This paper sets out the changes to stand­ing orders to be con­sidered, and seeks approv­al to the elec­tion pro­cess for the Deputy Convener.

Term of Office

1. The Board agreed in prin­ciple on 26 August that a term of office of one year, to Septem­ber 2023, is an appro­pri­ate tem­por­ary amend­ment to stand­ing orders in the con­text of the turnover in Board mem­ber­ship between Octo­ber 2022 and Janu­ary 2023 and fur­ther poten­tial turnover fol­low­ing dir­ect elec­tions to the Board in March 2023.

2. As such, the Board are reques­ted to tem­por­ar­ily sus­pend Stand­ing Order para­graph 6, that ​“The dur­a­tion of the office of Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener will be 3 years (unless the mem­ber con­cerned ceases to be a Mem­ber of the NPA, or resigns from the pos­i­tion of Convener/​Deputy Con­vener before the end of the period).”

3. The Board are reques­ted to approve a tem­por­ary vari­ation to Stand­ing Orders. For the elec­tion of the Deputy Con­vener com­men­cing in Septem­ber 2022 only, tak­ing office from I Octo­ber 2023 (or such date there­after as the res­ult of the elec­tion is declared), the term of office of the Cairngorms NPA Deputy Con­vener shall be until 30 Septem­ber 2023 (unless the mem­ber con­cerned ceases to be a Mem­ber of the NPA, or resigns from the pos­i­tion of Convener/​Deputy Con­vener before the end of the period).

Tim­ing of Elections

1. The Board agreed in prin­ciple that future elec­tions of Board offices would be best under­taken in June of a cal­en­dar year in order to provide for dis­tance from key Board turnover dates linked to loc­al author­ity nom­in­a­tions (Octo­ber) and dir­ect elec­tions (March).

2. The Board is there­fore asked to approve an addi­tion to stand­ing orders, with para­graph 4 of stand­ing orders amended as follows:

a) Delete from para­graph 4: The elec­tion of the Con­ven­or shall take place at a spe­cial meet­ing arranged for that pur­pose to be sched­uled pri­or to the end of the exist­ing Convenor’s term of appointment.

b) Replace in para­graph 4 with: Elec­tions required and held under these pro­vi­sions shall take place in June. The Prop­er Officer shall put in place appro­pri­ate arrange­ments to sup­port the elec­tion process.

c) Add to end of cur­rent para­graph 7: In such instances, the term of appoint­ment shall be a max­im­um of three years as provided in para­graph 6 or to 30 June of the third cal­en­dar year of appoint­ment, whichever is the short­er duration.

Mul­tiple Mem­bers in Role Share of Elec­ted Office

1. The Board agreed to invest­ig­ate the poten­tial for the Deputy Con­vener appoint­ment to be under­taken by mem­bers as a ​“role share”.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board meet­ing Paper 6 9^th Septem­ber 2022

1. Para­graph 11(1) of Sched­ule I to the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 requires that: ​“Mem­bers must elect from amongst their num­ber a con­vener and a deputy con­vener.” [My emphas­is added.] The implic­a­tion of the word­ing of the Act is there­fore of a single mem­ber being iden­ti­fied in each role, although this is neither defined nor made more expli­cit. In the time avail­able between the 26 August Board meet­ing and the I Septem­ber dis­tri­bu­tion of papers for the 9 Septem­ber Board meet­ing, it is not pos­sible to receive defin­it­ive advice on this mat­ter. Tak­ing for­ward an elec­tion of Deputy Con­vener with an allow­ance for mul­tiple mem­bers to under­take the role in a ​“role share” format would there­fore be with some leg­al risk.

2. As such, it is recom­men­ded that the Board agree that the idea of provid­ing for role shar­ing in elec­ted Board offices is fur­ther researched by officers with a view to being in pos­i­tion to estab­lish pro­pos­als by June 2023. This timetable would be in time for incor­por­a­tion in the next sched­uled meet­ing should the recom­mend­a­tions in this paper be agreed.

3. In devel­op­ing thoughts on role shar­ing of the Board’s elec­ted offices, the fol­low­ing points require con­sid­er­a­tion and any imme­di­ate or future feed­back on these points is welcome:

a) Is the oppor­tun­ity to role share lim­ited to two mem­bers, or more? b) In the nom­in­a­tion and second­ing pro­cesses, those mem­bers seek­ing to under­take a role share will pre­sum­ably have to identi­fy them­selves to the Board and seek joint / col­lect­ive nom­in­a­tion. How would the Board wish to oper­ate this pro­cess? c) Would nom­in­a­tions and seconds be required to expli­citly cov­er all mem­bers form­ing a pro­posed role share? d) In the event of one mem­ber form­ing a role share for Depute Con­vener either resign­ing or com­ing to the end of their peri­od of appoint­ment to the Board, is an elec­tion triggered? Or the remain­ing member(s) are deemed to con­tin­ue in the role until the end of the term of appoint­ment? e) Who spe­cifies the pro­por­tion of the role each par­ti­cipant of a role share will undertake?

1. The Board’s views on the above points are there­fore sought, either at this meet­ing or in feed­back dir­ect to the Deputy Chief Executive.

2. Sub­ject to the Board’s views on the points set out in this paper, the elec­tion is pro­posed to take place with effect from Monday 12 Septem­ber, com­men­cing with the nom­in­a­tion and second­ing pro­cess open­ing on that date for a peri­od of two weeks until Monday 26 Septem­ber and an elec­tion pro­cess tak­ing place, to be advised by the Prop­er Officer, once can­did­ates have been con­firmed and in the event there are mul­tiple can­did­ates for the office. The elec­tion shall be under­taken by either postal or secret elec­tron­ic ballot.

Dav­id Camer­on 29 August 2022 davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board meet­ing Paper 6 Annex I 9^th Septem­ber 2022

Annex I: Sum­mary of changes to Stand­ing Orders

1. In accord­ance with sched­ule 1, para­graph 11, of the Act, the Board elects the Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener from among its num­ber. The elec­tion of the Con­ven­or shall take place at a spe­cial meet­ing arranged for that pur­pose to be sched­uled pri­or to the end of the exist­ing Convenor’s term of appoint­ment. Elec­tions required and held under these pro­vi­sions shall take place in June. The Prop­er Officer shall put in place appro­pri­ate arrange­ments to sup­port the elec­tion pro­cess. The pro­cess of elec­tion for Con­vener shall be con­duc­ted by the Prop­er Officer.

2. [To be sus­pen­ded for the forth­com­ing Deputy Con­vener elec­tion only] The dur­a­tion of the office of Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener will be 3 years (unless the mem­ber con­cerned ceases to be a Mem­ber of the NPA, or resigns from the pos­i­tion of Convener/​Deputy Con­vener before the end of the period).

Replaced with for the forth­com­ing Deputy Con­vener elec­tion only: For the elec­tion of the Deputy Con­vener com­men­cing in Septem­ber 2022 only, tak­ing office from I Octo­ber 2023 (or such date there­after as the res­ult of the elec­tion is declared), the term of office of the Cairngorms NPA Deputy Con­vener shall be until 30 Septem­ber 2023 (unless the mem­ber con­cerned ceases to be a Mem­ber of the NPA, or resigns from the pos­i­tion of Convener/​Deputy Con­vener before the end of the period).

1. For cases in which a Convener/​Deputy Con­vener resigns or ceases to be a Mem­ber, the elec­tion pro­cess will apply as the first item of busi­ness at the next Board meet­ing fol­low­ing the vacancy arising. In such instances, the term of appoint­ment shall be a max­im­um of three years as provided in para­graph 6 or to 30 June of the third cal­en­dar year of appoint­ment, whichever is the short­er duration.