Agenda and minutes

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

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

Councillor Brierley had advised that he would not be attending any hearings in November and was also acting on advice from his solicitor that he should not attend as his evidence had been seized as part of a police investigation.  He was informed by letter on 2^nd November 2018, that the arrangements would remain in place for the hearing to convene.

The Sub Committee was advised by the Investigating Officer that the complaint had been received by the Monitoring Officer on 6 April 2018.  Councillor Brierley had not engaged in the investigation and had not at any point in the past six months provided any evidence to substantiate his claims against Mr Baker.  He had advised the Investigating Officer on 1 October 2018 that he had a recording of a conversation between himself and Mr Baker and was asked to submit this as evidence but he did not.  Following the seizure of his electronic equipment by the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) on 19 October, he had advised the Council that his evidence had been seized as part of the investigation.

The Sub Committee considered Councillor Brierley’s reasons for not attending the hearing and agreed to proceed in his absence as he had been given six months prior to his equipment being seized by GMP to provide any recordings or evidence to substantiate the claims he had made against Mr Baker.

The Sub Committee considered the written an oral representations before them, and having consulted with the Independent Person, on the balance of probability agreed the following facts:

(1)  The investigation had established with a reasonable level of probability   

that Councillor Brierley had made the Facebook posting.

(2)  Mr Baker was a reliable witness.

(3)  Councillor Brierley’s claim of qualified privilege had not been explained or reasoned.  Qualified privilege was not available for Councillor Brierley’s potentially defamatory posts on Facebook and his bribery allegations.

(4)  That there was no evidence to support the Facebook posts made by Councillor Brierley.  Mr Baker had never heard of the term ‘executive passes’ and never used that that term at any of his hotels and that the accusations that these were given to Cabinet members and the Chief Executive and offered to Councillor Brierley were completely false.  The investigation found no evidence of any ‘executive passes’ being given by Mr Baker or indeed any passes being given to anyone at the Council.  The term ‘executive passes’ was not a term or type of pass that Mr Baker had ever heard of in the hotel industry.  The allegations were untrue and Councillor Brierley’s false posts could be construed as being potentially defamatory and libellous.

(5)  That on balance of probabilities that Councillor Brierley did say to Mr Baker on 22^nd April 2018 that he had ‘accepted from the Council thousands of pounds  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.