Agenda item - Monitoring Officer's Report

Agenda item

Monitoring Officer's Report

[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 to Term of Office of Independent Member on the Committee

            The ESO detailed the background to and reasons for the proposal detailed in the report to extend the current term of office of Mr. N. Burke, Independent Member Chairman on the Committee.  Members fully supported the proposal to full Council given that this would both retain Mr. Burke's expertise on the Committee and would avoid the costs, both in terms of the required finance for the advertisement of the vacancy and officer and Member support time, involved in carrying out a full recruitment process.  It was noted that the term of office in question related to Mr. Burke's membership of the existing Standards Committee only, and not to any successor committee which might be introduced following the cessation of the current Committee some time in 2012 under proposals contained within the Localism Bill.

 

RESOLVED:

(a)       that the contents of the report be noted; and

(b)       that any required actions arising from the points detailed in the report be acted upon and reported back to the Committee as appropriate; and       

RECOMMENDED that the current term of office of Mr. N. Burke, Independent Members Chairman of the Standards Committee, be extended until the Standards Committee, in its present format, is abolished in accordance with the proposals contained within the Localism Bill.

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