Agenda item

On 1 February 2021 the Standards Committee considered proposed revisions to the arrangements for how the Monitoring Officer deals with complaints against councillors or co-opted Members, alleging a breach of their Code of Conduct. The arrangements apply to complaints against Waverley Borough councillors and co-opted Members, and to complaints against Town and Parish councillors within Waverley.

The Standards Committee was broadly supportive of the proposed revisions to the arrangements but asked that parish councils and the Independent Persons be given the opportunity to comment on the changes before they were recommended to Full Council for approval. The consultation took place over the summer and feedback was received from three parish clerks and three Independent Persons.

The arrangements for how the Monitoring Officer deals with standards complaints now reflect the feedback received and are presented to the Committee (at Annexe 1) for consideration and recommendation to Full Council for approval.

Recommendation

That the Standards & General Purposes Committee considers the revised arrangements under which the Monitoring Officer will investigate an allegation of a breach of the code, and recommends them to Full Council for approval, with or without further amendments.

This item was introduced by Robin Taylor as the Head of Policy and Governance and Monitoring Officer.  The procedure for dealing with code of conduct complaints was looked at earlier in 2021 but the Monitoring Officer had been asked to look at it further with particular reference to consultation with Parish Councils and the Independent Person.  He had also attended a Town and Parish Council liaison meeting to talk through the proposals and hear feedback.  There were two areas of feedback:

·         That complaints about town and parish councillors should only be considered by the Monitoring Officer if the Town or Parish Clerk has been unable to resolve the issue within 28 days

·         There were comments about the tone of the arrangements.  The Independent person felt it was odd that the arrangements addressed the complainant directly rather than using a more neutral tone

On the first point, some Town and Parish Councils were very keen on the idea whilst others felt strongly that the Monitoring Officer needed to be involved.  The Monitoring Officer stated that the intention had been to ensure that the Town and Parish Councils hadn’t felt excluded not to force the issue onto them.  Paragraph 3.5 on page 15 -16 of the papers was the attempt to resolve these points.

On the second point, the Monitoring Officer agreed on reflection that the arrangements ought to have a neutral voice.

Some of the Committee felt the order of the document was confusing with the Executive Summary at the start as this would not be as helpful for those who were unfamiliar with the process and needed to understand what it was about.  They felt the preamble should be first because otherwise technical terms were introduced without being explained.  The Monitoring Officer was happy for this to happen.

Some also felt it was important that Town and Parish Clerks were seen to remain neutral and that ultimate responsibility lay with the Monitoring Officer.

There was a question about whether in 4.9c “works closely with the councillor they are complaining about” included a fellow Councillor.  The Monitoring Officer said it could refer to a Councillor but he had been thinking more of Officers.  He referenced paragraph 3.4 where it stated that issues between Councillors would initially be referred to the appropriate group leader.  If it was judged to be vexatious, the Monitoring Officer would dismiss it upfront.  Councillors commented that reference to group leaders would only work at Waverley and not at the Town or Parish Councils.  The Monitoring Officer said that in these cases he would be speaking to the Town or Parish Clerk.

There was a further question in relation to 4.4f in relation to the types of complaint which would not be considered where the person complained about was no longer a councillor.  It was asked what happened if the person resigned during the process.  The Monitoring Officer said a judgement would have to be made by him at that point about whether the case was closed.  Once a Councillor was no longer a Councillor they couldn’t be required to attend a hearing and they were no longer bound by the Code of Conduct.  Some of the Committee thought there should be something in the Code to say the investigation would cease at that point.  The point was raised that if a complaint related to a decision the Councillor had made that was deemed unfair, would there be another procedure for dealing with the complaint.  The Monitoring Officer said that other procedures could include the Borough Council’s or Town or Parish’s Corporate Complaints Procedure.  The Monitoring Officer felt that sometimes the complaint might raise questions about the organisational culture which did need to be investigated.  This is why the Monitoring Officer didn’t want it written into the process that the investigations would stop at this point.  The Committee asked what would happen if a Councillor was both a Borough Councillor and a Town or Parish Councillor and resigned one role but not the other.  The Monitoring Officer said they have two codes of conducts to abide by.  The Monitoring Officer would also establish whether a complaint was about a Councillor in their capacity as a Borough Councillor or a Town or Parish Councillor.

The Chairman asked regarding point 8.8 whether if a Councillor had been removed from all Committees, they could not attend committees at all, and, for example, ask questions. The Monitoring Officer said no process could remove a Councillor from office so they had to be given the right to join Full Council.  Furthermore, the Constitution states Councillors have a right to attend and speak at other committees.  The right of a Councillor to be a member of a particular committee or sub committee is not set out in the Constitution and that could be removed with the exception of Full Council.

A proposal was put forward by Cllr Cosser and seconded by Cllr Gray that there would be the addition of a clause to say that an investigation would normally cease except in certain circumstances where there were lessons to be learned for the body as a whole.  It was carried by 4 votes for and 3 against.

RESOLVED

That, subject to the correction of typos and the proposals listed above, the Standards and General Purposes Committee recommends to Full Council the adoption of the revised arrangements under which the Monitoring Officer will investigate a breach of the Code of Conduct.