Agenda and minutes

Report of Assistant Director – Legal (Monitoring Officer) attached.

The Sub Committee considered a report of the Investigating Officer, (Monitoring Officer), Linda Fisher, which requested Members to consider allegations against a Councillor that he had breached the Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer was in receipt of a not fit to work note from Councillor Brierley’s GP.  The Sub Committee decided to hear the matter in his absence after delaying the start of the meeting by over thirty minutes to allow the Subject Member time to attend.

In doing so the Sub Committee took into account the following matters:

·                     Councillor Brierley had been offered a number of opportunities to engage with the process;

·                     the complaint had been outstanding for a considerable period;

·                     Councillor Brierley had been aware of the date and time set for the hearing for a reasonable time;

·                     the investigating officer and the witnesses were in attendance and had prepared for the hearing to take place;

·                     the hearing had already been postponed on a previous occasion at Councillor Brierley’s request; and

·                     Councillor Brierley had been informed that if he did not attend the reconvened hearing it would proceed in his absence.

The Sub Committee took into account the oral and written representations on behalf of the Investigating Officer, which set out the details of the complaint. 

The Sub Committee agreed the following facts:-

(1)     that Councillor Brierley was at the 12 November 2014 Council meeting and commented “Oh, I forgot it is you Mr Murphy you dickhead;

(2)     at the Council meeting on 14 January 2015, Councillor Halliwell made a request that Councillor Brierley apologise for the allegedly defamatory comments he made at the previous Council meeting;

(3)     that Councillor Brierley refused to apologise and he disputed the allegation that he had made any defamatory comment as he had not been reported to the Council’s Monitoring Officer for breaching the Members’ Code of Conduct;

(4)     that the expert witness was a specialist in forensic audio and video enhancement. His expertise was contained within his statement.

The Sub Committee concluded that as a result of this actions, Councillor Brierley had breached paragraph 3(1)(b):

‘you must not bully or be abusive to any person’

And paragraph 5 of the Council’s code of Conduct:

‘you must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office or the Council into disrepute.’

The Sub Committee considered that the comments made by Councillor Brierley would be considered abusive and disrespectful to most members of the public.  Saying them at a Council meeting disrespected the meeting and the Mayor and showed a conduct which adversely affected public confidence in his ability to fulfil his councillor role. The words used and this conduct were capable of damaging the reputation of the Council thereby engaging paragraph 5 of the Members Code of Conduct.

The Sub Committee having consulted with the Independent Person resolved the following actions to be taken:

(1)          The formal Decision Notice is to be published on the Council’s website;

(2)          Details of the outcome  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.