Agenda and minutes

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

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

Following legal advice, the Sub Committee had agreed to hold the hearing in private on the grounds that Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 applied (information relating to any individual or which is likely to reveal the identity of any individual) as in this case, discussion would potentially involve details of individual(s), including witnesses and individuals referred to in the investigation report.

The Sub Committee noted the Subject Member’s wish to hold the Hearing in public but felt that they also had to consider the witnesses and others involved in the case. The Sub Committee recognised the public interest in justice being seen to be done but on balance felt that the greater public interest was to maintain the exemption so witnesses were not discouraged from bringing such complaints in the future.

As part of the preliminary procedural issues the Subject Member informed the Sub Committee that he would be recording the Hearing as an aid to help him with his disability. It was explained to him that as the meeting was being held in private, the rules for recording the meeting were not the same as those for a public meeting and that under normal circumstances recordings were not permissible. In an attempt to accommodate the Subject Member’s needs, the Sub Committee made the offer to permit him to be able to record the proceedings on his own device and also offered that the hearing be recorded by the Council and a copy of that recording would be made available to him, at the end of the Hearing, subject to a confidentiality agreement that the recording would be used only for his own purposes and the contents would not be divulged to any other party. 

The Subject Member agreed to this proposal subject to all parties at the Hearing signing the agreement for the same purpose.

At the request of the Subject Members representative, the Sub Committee agreed to take into account the representation of the witness on behalf of the Subject Member first.

The Sub Committee then took into account the oral, written and video evidence on behalf of the Investigating Officer, which set out the details of the complaint.  The complainant was called as a witness on behalf of the Investigating Officer.

The Sub Committee then invited the Subject Member’s representative to put forward their oral, written and audio evidence on behalf the Subject Member in relation to the incident

The Sub Committee agreed the following facts:-

(1)          there was a dispute between a resident and the complainant regarding the handover of a relative;

(2)          on 29 December 2014, the Subject Member, at the request of one of the  residents, attended their family home  and asked the complainant not to video the resident’s family when collecting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.