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City of York Council |
Committee Minutes |
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Meeting |
Joint Standards Committee - Assessments Sub-Committee |
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Date |
25 February 2026 |
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Present |
Councillors Kent, Runciman and Steward (City Council Members) |
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Apologies |
Ms R Mazza (Independent Member) |
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Officers in Attendance |
Julie Gallagher (Deputy Monitoring Officer) Chris Coss (Head of Legal Services) |
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26. Appointment of Chair (3:05pm)
Resolved: That Councillor Runciman be appointed as Chair of the meeting.
27. Apologies for Absence (3:05pm)
There were no apologies. The Independent Person was unable to attend the meeting but her views were sought and considered by members.
28. Declarations of Interest (3:05pm)
Members were asked to declare at this point in the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registerable interests they might have in respect of business on the agenda, if they had not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests. None were declared.
29. Exclusion of Press and Public (3:05pm)
Resolved: That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the private report at Agenda Item 5 (Code of Conduct Complaint received in respect of a City of York Councillor), on the grounds that it contained information relating to individuals and information likely to reveal the identity of individuals, which is classed as exempt under paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006.
[Note: following the above resolution, the Deputy Monitoring Officer confirmed that she had nothing further to add in respect of the public reports in the agenda papers, and the remainder of the meeting took place in private session.]
30. Code of Conduct Complaint Received in Respect of a City of York Councillor (3:06pm)
Members considered a report which set out a Code of Conduct complaint received in respect of a City of York Councillor. Details of the complaint were presented in the private report referred to above.
Members were asked to decide whether to:
A. rule that the complaint is out of scope, or
B. rule that the complaint is in scope and choose either to:
i) take no further action
ii) seek to resolve the matter informally, or
iii) refer the matter for investigation.
Having considered all the information provided, and the advice of the Independent Person at the meeting, it was
Resolved: That Option B(ii) be approved.
Reason: The assessment sub-committee concluded that the matters complained of were capable of constituting breaches of the Member Code of Conduct and the complaint was consequently in scope.
The sub-committee concluded that inappropriate language had been used, but that this was symptomatic of a wider issue within current political discourse. It was decided that an advisory note be issued to all political groups and to the independent member.
Cllr C Runciman, Chair
[The meeting started at 3.05 pm and finished at 3.39 pm].