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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 |
9 December 2021 |
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Present |
Councillor Rawlings (Parish Council Member) Councillors, Pavlovic (Substitute for Cllr Baker) and Rowley (CYC Members) |
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Apologies |
Councillor Baker (CYC Member) Mr Laverick (Independent Person) |
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25. Appointment of Chair
Resolved: That Cllr Rawlings be appointed as Chair of the meeting.
26. 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.
27. 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 City of York Councillors), on the grounds that it contains information relating to individuals, 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.
28. Code of Conduct Complaint received in respect of City of York Councillors
Members considered a report on a Code of Conduct complaint received in respect of three City of York Councillors. Details of the complaint and circumstances were presented in the exempt report.
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;
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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 complaints. Should this option be approved, Members’ views were also sought on whether an internal or external investigator should be appointed.
Discussion took place in private session, in accordance with the resolution in Minute 27 above.
Having considered the evidence provided, and taking into account the views of the Independent Person, supplied in writing in lieu of attendance at the meeting, it was
Resolved: (i) That the complaint progress to an investigation, in accordance with Option 2 and an external investigator be appointed.
Reason: The sub-committee considers that an investigation is warranted in this case.
(ii) That the contents of the complaint now be shared with the Subject Members.
Reason: In the interests of fairness.
Cllr S Rawlings, Chair
[The meeting started at 10.40 am and finished at 11.40 am].