The Monitoring Officer advised the Joint
Committee that the Complainant had stated that they would not be
attending the meeting, the Officer also outlined the options
available to the Chairman with regard to the process in respect of
the consideration and deliberation of the report.
Members were advised that the Complainant had
been made the subject of a counter complaint, however, the Joint
Committee were not being asked to consider this matter and should
not give any regard to it in their deliberations.
Furthermore, the Monitoring Officer expressed
her concern that ‘tit for tat’ complaints were
increasing, in light of which the intention was to include specific
guidance on dealing with these type of complaints as part of the
review of standards procedures for the West Suffolk Council.
Lastly, the Joint Committee were advised of
two corrections to the report before them:
Paragraph 1.3 – should have read
“after” [the meeting] and not ‘at’; and
Paragraph 2.1 – the word
‘emails’ should be replaced with
“tweets”.
The Councillor who was the subject of the
complaint was then invited to re-join the meeting and was permitted
to address Members directly in response to the
complaint.
Considerable debate then ensued with the Joint
Committee posing a number of questions to the Councillor in
attendance.
Whilst the complaint related to a topic
discussed within a formal meeting and the incident took place
within the venue of said meeting, the Joint Committee had some
reservations that the Councillor in question was still acting
‘in capacity’ as an elected Member as the formal
meeting had closed.
Accordingly, Members concluded that the
Councillor who was the subject of the complaint was not bound by
the Code of Conduct at the time of the incident, and had therefore
not breached the Code. However, given
the subject had already expressed willingness to do so, they did
consider that it would be helpful for the Councillor to apologise
to the Complainant, with the Monitoring Officer acting as
conduit.
The Joint Committee also requested that, in
light of the Monitoring Officer’s comments earlier in the
meeting with regard to the volume of complaints and the 2019 local
elections, an email be sent to all West Suffolk Councillors on
behalf of the Joint Committee reminding them of the Code of Conduct
and the need to comply when acting in their official capacity.
With the vote being unanimous, it was
RESOLVED:
That:-
1.
The West Suffolk Joint Standards Committee resolved that the
Councillor who was the subject of the complaint was not acting in
the capacity of an Elected Member at the time of the incident and
was, therefore, not in breach of the Code of Conduct;
2.
An apology be issued to the Complainant from the Councillor with
the Monitoring Officer acting as conduit;
3.
Specific guidance on dealing with ‘tit for tat’
complaints be included as part of the review of standards
procedures for the West Suffolk Council; and
4.
An email be sent on behalf of the Joint Committee ...
view the full minutes text for item 72.