Procedural Outcomes

Abstract

The hung authority soon finds many aspects of the organisation that were taken for granted in the majority situation inappropriate or unworkable in the new one. Established patterns of behaviour have to be reinterpreted. What does being the chair of the council, the leader of the council, or a committee chair mean? Certainly something very different from before. Whom do chief officers now brief, given that all groups can directly influence decisions by their voting stances? What is to be done about committee composition, particularly in authorities where the previous majority administration had enhanced its majority on committees by adding to them ex-officio members such as the chairs and vice-chairs of Policy and Resources? How is urgent business now to be dealt with? Is the pattern of delegation from council to committee appropriate in the new situation? Who issues press statements, and in what circumstances? And are the existing standing orders capable of coping?