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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 September 2021 |
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PRESENT |
Councillors Douglas and Fisher (CYC Members) Councillor Rawlings (Parish Council Member)
Ms Davies (Independent Person) |
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17. Appointment of Chair
Resolved: That Cllr Rawlings be appointed to act as Chair of the meeting.
18. Declarations of Interest
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.
19. 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 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.
20. Code of Conduct Complaint received in respect of a City of York Councillor
Members considered an updated report produced by the Investigating Officer in respect of a complaint against a City of York Councillor, following the Sub-Committee’s request on 23 April 2021 that further investigation be carried out in relation to the complaint.
After completing the further investigation, the Investigating Officer had concluded that the Councillor in question did not breach the Code of Conduct.
Details of the complaint and circumstances were presented in the exempt report. The draft investigation report was attached as exempt Annex A. Members were asked to consider whether to:
A. Rule that the draft investigation report was not complete and that further investigation should take place;
B. Rule that the report was complete and that the finding made was accepted; or
C. Rule that the report was complete but that the finding made was not accepted.
Following discussion in private session in accordance with the resolution in Minute 19 above, it was
Resolved: (i) That option B be approved and the Investigating Officer’s finding that the Councillor did not breach the Code of Conduct be accepted.
Reason: On the basis that the Councillor was acting as a private individual, and not as a councillor, at the material time.
(ii) That the Sub-Committee place on record their deep concern about the complaints; however, whilst disappointed, they note the repeated apologies made by the Councillor.
Cllr S Rawlings, Chair
[The meeting started at 3.21 pm and finished at 3.54 pm].