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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 |
30 November 2023 |
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Present |
Cllrs Pavlovic and Rowley (City Council Members) Cllr Chambers (Parish Council Member) Joe Leigh (Independent Member). |
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Officers in Attendance |
Frances Harrison (Deputy Monitoring Officer) |
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11. Appointment of Chair (1:29 pm)
Resolved: That Councillor Pavlovic be elected as Chair of the meeting.
12. Declarations of Interest (1:39 pm)
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.
No interests were declared, but for the sake of transparency, Parish Cllr Chambers noted that one of the subjects of one of the assessments was known to him.
13. Exclusion of Press and Public (1:41 pm)
Resolved: That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the private reports at Agenda Items 4 and 5 (Code of Conduct Complaints received in respect of Parish Councillors), on the grounds that they contain 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.]
14. Code of Conduct Complaint received in respect of Parish Councillors (1:42 pm)
Members considered a report which set out a Code of Conduct complaint received in respect of nine Parish Councillors. Details of the complaint were presented in the private report referred to in Minute 5 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:
i) That, in respect of complaint one, option B(ii) be approved, and the matter be resolved informally by way of a written apology to the complainant. The panel also requested the deputy monitoring officer to write to the chair.
ii) That, in respect of complaint two, option A be approved.
Reason: The Sub-Committee considered that, although the matter was capable of being a breach of the Code of Conduct, restitution could be achieved by returning the complainant to the position they would have been in, had the Parish Council acted in accordance with YLCA guidelines.
15. Code of Conduct Complaint received in respect of Parish Councillors (2:10 pm)
Members considered a report which set out a Code of Conduct complaint received in respect of nine Parish Councillors. Details of the complaint were presented in the private report referred to in Minute 5 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:
iii) That, in respect of complaint one, option B(ii) be approved, and the matter be resolved informally by way of a written apology to the complainant. The panel also requested the deputy monitoring officer to write to the chair.
iv) That, in respect of complaint two, option A be approved.
Reason: The Sub-Committee considered that, although the matter was capable of being a breach of the Code of Conduct, restitution could be achieved by returning the complainant to the position they would have been in, had the Parish Council acted in accordance with YLCA guidelines.
Cllr Michael Pavlovic, Chair
[The meeting started at 1:29 pm and finished at 2:20 pm].