Agenda and minutes

To appoint a member to chair the meeting.

Resolved:  That Cllr Douglas be appointed as Chair of the meeting.

Members are asked to declare:

·        Any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        Any prejudicial interests or

·        Any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests, that they might have in the business on the agenda.  No interests were declared.

For the sake of transparency, Cllr Rowley stated that he had been in attendance at the meeting in respect of which the complaint had been made.

To consider excluding the public and press 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 contains information relating to individuals.  This information is classed as exempt under paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006.

Resolved:  That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the private report at Agenda Item 4 (Code of Conduct Complaint received in respect of a City of York Councillor), on the grounds that it contains information relating to an individual, which is classed as exempt under paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006.

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

Note: the private report referred to in Agenda Item 3 above follows the public report on this item.

Members considered a report on a Code of Conduct complaint received in respect of a City of York Councillor.  Details of the complaint and circumstances were presented in the private report referred to in Minute 35 above.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer (DMO) confirmed that the Monitoring Officer was not in attendance because she had a conflict of interest in the case.  The DMO also corrected an error in the report, amending the reference in paragraph 5 to ‘clause 3.11’ of the Members’ Code to ‘clause 3.10’.

Members were invited to consider whether to:

1)   Rule that the complaint did not fall within the remit of the Code of Conduct and therefore no further action be taken;

or

2)   Rule that the complaint should progress to an investigation, in which case the Monitoring Officer would appoint an investigating officer in accordance with the procedure for the handling of complaints. 

Discussion took place in private session, in accordance with the decision in Minute 35.  Before closing the public session, the Chair drew attention to the non-political nature of the Joint Standards Committee and its sub-committees.

Having considered the information provided, and taking into account the views of the Independent Person at the meeting, it was

Resolved:  (i)      That the Chief Operating Officer (COO) be recommended to rule that the complaint progress to an investigation, in accordance with Option 2.

Reason:     The sub-committee considers that an investigation is warranted in this case.

(ii)      That the COO advise the DMO to appoint an external investigator.

Reason:     In view of the circumstances of the case.