Issue - meetings

Monitoring Officer's Report

Meeting: 08/06/2011 - Standards Committee (this Committee has now been combined wit the Audit, Standrds and Governance Committee and no longer meets) (Item 7)

[To receive a report from the Monitoring Officer on any matters of relevance to the Committee.]

Minutes:

The Committee noted the contents of the Monitoring Officer’s (MO’s) report and the issues detailed below were raised during the consideration of this.

(i) Member Investigations and Associated Matters

In relation to Complaint Reference 94/09 the Deputy Monitoring Officer (DMO) informed the Committee that notwithstanding the fact that the Subject Member was no longer a serving district councillor, it had previously been established with Standards for England that the process for dealing with a complaint against a former Member had still to be completed in the normal manner. The key difference being any sanction that the Committee could impose should the subject Member be found to have failed to follow the Code of Conduct. A date for the Final Determination Hearing was currently being looked into, which it was hoped would take place in early July.

The DMO advised that the Investigating Officer's report into Complaint References 03/10 and 04/10 (linked complaints against an Alvechurch Parish Councillor) had now been issued to the relevant parties for comment. Again, it was hoped that this matter would be heard in early July, with it being noted that Mr. Cypher would not participate in the consideration of this as parish representatives were not permitted to consider complaints against Members of their own council.

Regarding the complaints arsing from the meetings of full Council in July 2009 and January 2010, it was noted that the date scheduled for the Final Determination Hearing in May had had to be rescheduled owing to the changes in district councillor membership of the Committee as a consequence of the May elections. The new date for the Hearing had been set at Tuesday 19th July 2011, continuing if necessary to the morning of Wednesday 20th July.

A query was raised later in the meeting as to whether there was any statutory timeframe within which final determination hearings had to take place. Officers advised that the governing regulations normally required hearings to take place within 3 months of the Investigating Officer's final report. However, the regulations also provided that should it not be possible to meet that timeframe then a hearing should take place as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter. The Chairman stated that the Committee aimed to conduct hearings in both a timely and orderly manner, whilst remaining conscious of the fact that there were various elements to be satisfied before proceeding to final hearing stage.

(ii) Parish Council Matters

Further to the information detailed by the Ethical Standards Officer (ESO) at the beginning of the meeting regarding changes to the Committee membership, the ESO confirmed that at the meeting of the Bromsgrove Area Committee of the Worcestershire County Association of Local Councils (CALC) on 1st June 2011 both Mr. Cypher and Mr. Hodgetts had been nominated to continue as the Parish Representatives on the Committee for 2011/12, with Mrs. K. May of Bournheath Parish Council being the proposed Deputy Parish Representative. It was noted that all nominations would be considered by full Council on 22nd June.

(iii) Extension ... view the full minutes text for item 7