Are Councillors The Proper People To Be Trustees Of Charities?

[lizmachin]

There are several charities in Sheffield where the trustees are Sheffield Council.

 

As has recently been seen with the Graves Park Charity, this can lead to conflicts of interest when councillors are required to act in the best interests of the charity for which they are trustee.

 

Is this acceptable or is there a better way?

[DIVA]

We have a prime example here, don't we? As far as the parks are concerned, I think Trusteeship should be devolved to the "Friends Of" groups, who are the ones best placed/knowledgeable/motivated to act in the best interests of the parks.

[fox20thc]

If a councillor or anyone for that matter is a trustee of a charitable company and there is a conflict of interest regarding a decision to be made then the person should express the conflict and withdraw from the discussion/debate/vote.

 

I don't think that they should be excluded from being a trustee, neither do I think all charities should have a councillor on the board.

[Greybeard]

We have a prime example here, don't we? As far as the parks are concerned, I think Trusteeship should be devolved to the "Friends Of" groups, who are the ones best placed/knowledgeable/motivated to act in the best interests of the parks.

 

But in the case of the GPT wasn't it Graves himself who nominated the Council (then the Corporation) to be trustees ? He obviously believed the elected representatives of the people of Sheffield could be trusted to look after and administer his legacy as he intended.

 

Grave's other trust, the J G Graves Charitable Trust, seems have two Councillors on its board but how they got there I know not. At the time the trust was created Graves did stipulate that two members of the Town Trust should be co-opted, but at present none of the Town trustees sit on the JGGCT board.

[Albert T Smith]

But in the case of the GPT wasn't it Graves himself who nominated the Council (then the Corporation) to be trustees ? He obviously believed the elected representatives of the people of Sheffield could be trusted to look after and administer his legacy as he intended.

 

Grave's other trust, the J G Graves Charitable Trust, seems have two Councillors on its board but how they got there I know not. At the time the trust was created Graves did stipulate that two members of the Town Trust should be co-opted, but at present none of the Town trustees sit on the JGGCT board.

 

Each year at its AGM Trustees are elected to join or continue.

I believe that the Charity Commission recommends that a Trustee should served Three years and during the third year the trustee is encouraged to try to find a replacement for themselves.

 

The trouble is that when Trustees realise the enormity of responsibility that goes with excepting trusteeship, unfortunately, not many people wish to voluntee their services.

 

The idea of have Councilor's or Friends Of ???. Appears at first to be a viable proposition basically because they are directly involved, but I believe that over a period of time not many councilor's will remain that have adequate time to give to the charity and Friends of ???, being a relative new organisation, will in the roundness of time, peak. This will then leave just a core of aging members whose ideas of, as now, will change, along with age and enthusiasm.

 

Getting trustees these days, basically in a society that is rapidly changing from ' The True Volunteer ' to a ' Expense's Paid Volunteer ' is creating a great deal of problems within many Charities.

 

What the eventual outcome will be, I frequently think about.

[Taky]

If a charity calls on public money, as in the case of a local park, surely the local council supplying the public money (via the tax payer) would need to be represented.

 

Although I see no need for trustees to be exclusively council members - groups with a specific interest in a charities objective could bring something extra that councillors with the many conflicting interests clearly cannot e.g. Graves Park

[Albert T Smith]

Does this poll actually mean to include ' All the charities in Sheffield ?'.

 

Poll Options

Should councillors be allowed to be trustees of city charities

No they should never be trustees where their could be a conflict of interests

Yes they should be trustees of all city charities

[cgksheff]

When something is gifted, for charitable purposes, to 'the city' or to 'the people', it is perfectly reasonable for members of the Council to represent 'the people/the city' on the board of trustees.

 

The problems arise when the board of trustees is composed solely of Councillors and a conflict of interests can easily arise unchecked.

[anarchist]

When something is gifted, for charitable purposes, to 'the city' or to 'the people', it is perfectly reasonable for members of the Council to represent 'the people/the city' on the board of trustees.

 

The problems arise when the board of trustees is composed solely of Councillors and a conflict of interests can easily arise unchecked.

 

That is the nubb of the argument. If councillors could be trusted to act as required by charity law there would not be a problem.

 

Charity law requires trustees to act in the interests of the charity they represent whilst ignoring the interests of other parties. When councillors are trustees they cannot be trusted to do that.

 

Furthermore when councillors are acting as trustees party affiliations are not relevant, because this is when the councillors are acting for the charity. However the influence of the whip will usually be apparent.

[Albert T Smith]

Probably the real question should be: Should a City Council except donations that require a charity to be formed and elected city councilors to be the charity's trustee's or play a governing roll on the donated gifts.

 

In short:- Should all donation be taken and excepted without any strings attached.

 

I have always been of the opinion that when people donated their often, personal tax saving gifts, to the City. Though the gift could have covenants attached, it did not require a charity to be created and administered by any trustees.

 

Does the poll attached to this thread cover ALL City Based Charities?

If it does the councilors will have a real expence account to look forward to!!!