Issue - meetings

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

The Committee noted the contents of the Monitoring Officer’s (“MO’s”) report and the following issues were raised during the consideration of this:

(i)         Member Investigations and Associated Matters

The MO responded to questions regarding former Parish Councillor Dale Carter and the position, in the light of the suspension imposed upon him by the Committee, should Mr. Carter stand for re-election in the future.  The MO stated that the consequence of Mr. Carter's resignation was that he had effectively imposed a suspension upon himself by virtue of the fact that he would no longer be sitting as a councillor.  It would be important for any Monitoring Officer in situ to make the Parish Council Clerk aware of the significance of the Register of Members' Interests should Mr. Carter become a councillor again, to ensure he completed the required form.  The MO stated that Councillor Carter's suspension was never intended as a 'punishment' as it was the role of the Standards Committee to ensure that high standards of conduct were maintained and that there was a clear understanding on all sides of what those standards were.

(ii)        Issues arising as a result of assessment decisions

The MO advised that she had raised the issue of the audio system in the Council meetings rooms with the Senior Management Team.  She confirmed that a new system was to be installed to coincide with the use of the Council Chamber as a count centre for the General Election in May.  It was her understanding that this would be a more satisfactory wireless system, which could hopefully also be used in the other meeting rooms.  A district councillor commented that stronger amplification was required, to which the MO responded that such a system had previously been considered by the Cabinet and a decision made not to approve the required expenditure for this.  Should the new system prove to be inadequate then the matter would have to be looked at again.  The MO added that she had contacted the member of the public who had made the original complaint and updated them on the position.

(iii)       Local Assessment Statistics - nature of complaints

Concern was expressed by a member of the Committee in relation to the term "inappropriate" behaviour as detailed in the table of Local Assessment Statistics appended to the report.  It was felt that this might not be a sufficiently strong term, particularly in view of the events surrounding the meeting of the full Council in July 2009 and the ongoing investigations in that regard.  Officers highlighted the difficulties in categorising complaints associated with Member behaviour, particularly where complainants had failed to attribute these to a particular section of the Code of Conduct.  The term inappropriate was deemed a general term which covered a broad range of matters.  The MO stated that she felt uncomfortable that officers effectively had to categorise allegations as it was not their role to do so.  The Committee agreed that it still wished to receive this information and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50