Issue - meetings

To consider a complaint of breach of the Code of Conduct received in respect of a City of York Councillor and determine next steps.

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.