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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 |
11 April 2025 |
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Present |
Councillor Rowley (CYC Member), Councillors Chambers and Geogheghan-Breen (Parish Council Members) |
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Apologies
Officers Present |
Ms R Mazza (Independent Person)
Frances Harrison, Head of Legal, Deputy Monitoring Officer Cathryn Moore, Legal Business Partner (Corporate), Deputy Monitoring Officer
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10. Appointment of Chair
Resolved: That Cllr Rowley be appointed as Chair of the meeting.
11. Apologies for Absence
Apologies had been received from Ms R Mazza, Independent Person.
12. Declarations of Interest
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.
Parish Cllr Geoghegan-Breen noted that she was a member of the Labour Party.
13. Exclusion of Press and Public
Resolved: That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the private report at Agenda Item 4 (Code of Conduct Complaints 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 Chair noted that there was no urgent business, and the remainder of the meeting took place in private session.]
14. Code of Conduct Complaint Received in Respect of a City of York Councillor
Members considered a report which set out a Code of Conduct complaint received in respect of a CYC Councillor. Details of the complaint were presented in the private report referred to in Minute 13 above.
Members first considered procedural concerns which had been raised and were satisfied that the case handling procedure had been correctly applied.
Members were asked to decide whether to:
A. rule that the complaint was out of scope, or
B. rule that the complaint was 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 the information, including the advice of the Independent Person, Members agreed that while it was not possible to establish what, if anything, had been said by the Subject Member, the hand gestures were open to interpretation and had the potential to offend. A letter from the Chair, which highlighted the importance of high standards of conduct in demonstrating the Council’s values of respect and inclusivity, and advising against the use of hand gestures, would be an appropriate informal resolution of the matter.
Resolved: That Option B(ii) be approved, and the matter be resolved informally by way of a letter of advice from the Chair of the Joint Standards Committee to all parties and connected persons.
Reason: The Sub-Committee considered that this matter was capable of constituting breaches of the Member Code of Conduct and that the matter should be resolved informally.
At the end of the meeting, the Chair placed on record his thanks to the Head of Legal for her excellent contribution to the Joint Standards Committee and Sub-Committees ahead of her departure from City of York Council.
Cllr M Rowley, Chair
[The meeting started at 2.02 pm and finished at 3.22 pm].