Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room A and B - Charringtons House, Bishop's Stortford. View directions

Contact: Jeff Hughes  Tel: (01279) 502170 Email:  jeff.hughes@eastherts.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Chairman

Minutes:

RESOLVED – that Councillor M Wood be appointed Chairman for this meeting of the Standards Sub-Committee.

2.

Chairman's Announcements

Minutes:

Councillor M Wood welcomed all present to the first meeting of the newly constituted Standards Sub-Committee.

 

At the request of the Chairman, the Head of Democratic and Legal Support Services tabled copies of replacement agenda pages numbered 23 to 158.  He advised that these replacement pages omitted information mistakenly included within the original agenda papers relating to a separate investigation that would be the subject of consideration at a future meeting.

3.

Complaint in Respect of a Councillor, Reference EHDC/09/2011 pdf icon PDF 23 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report on a complaint alleging that Councillor M Alexander’s actions at a meeting of the Authority’s Development Control Committee had breached the Councillors Code of Conduct.

 

The complaint was the subject of an investigation by an independent Investigating Officer appointed by the Monitoring Officer.

 

The Sub-Committee considered the report of the Investigating Officer’s findings on the complaint in accordance with its approved procedure.

 

The Standards Sub-Committee, in consultation with the Independent Person, determined that in relation to the breach of the code allegation relating to:

 

(A)      a failure to treat others with respect – there was no case to answer.  It considered under no circumstance did Councillor Alexander make any disrespectful comments about other councillors and participants, and

 

(B)      bringing the office (of councillor) into disrepute - Councillor Alexander was entitled to speak and did present background information to the Development Control Committee.  He was not fettered by previous knowledge of the project.  The Investigating Officer’s report was comprehensive. There were no facts that pointed to the office of Councillor being brought into disrepute and therefore there was no case to answer.

 

           RESOLVED - that in relation to the breach of the code allegation concerning Councillor M Alexander relating to:

 

(A)      a failure to treat others with respect – there was no case to answer - under no circumstance did Councillor Alexander make any disrespectful comments about other councillors and participants, and

 

(B)  bringing the office (of councillor) into disrepute - Councillor Alexander was entitled to speak and did present background information to the Development Control Committee.  He was not fettered by previous knowledge of the project.  The Investigating Officer’s report was comprehensive. There were no facts that pointed to the office of Councillor being brought into disrepute and therefore there was no case to answer.

 

4.

Complaint in Respect of a Parish Councillor, Reference HORM/01/2012 pdf icon PDF 23 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report on a complaint alleging that Hormead Parish Councillor J Kilby had breached Hormead Parish Council’s Councillors Code of Conduct.

 

The complaint was the subject of an investigation by an independent Investigating Officer appointed by the Monitoring Officer.

 

The Sub-Committee considered the report of the Investigating Officer’s findings on the complaint in accordance with its approved procedure.

 

The Standards Sub-Committee, in consultation with the Independent Person, determined that, in relation to all the circumstances of the case, there was no evidence of any failure by Councillor Kilby to comply with the Code of Conduct and therefore there was no case to answer.

 

           RESOLVED – that in relation to all the circumstances of the case, there was no evidence of any failure by Councillor Kilby to comply with the Code of Conduct and therefore there was no case to answer.

 

5.

Complaint Against a District Councillor pdf icon PDF 25 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report on a complaint alleging that Councillor M Newman had breached the Council’s Councillors Code of Conduct.

 

The Head of Democratic and Legal Support Services highlighted the Council’s assessment criteria for such complaints.  He invited the Sub-Committee to use the criteria to reach one of the following decisions on the complaint:

 

(A)      to refer it to the Council’s Monitoring Officer for investigation, or

 

(B)      to take no action.

 

The Sub-Committee agreed to refer the complaint to the Monitoring Officer for investigation.

 

           RESOLVED – that the complaint now submitted alleging that Councillor Newman had breached the Authority’s Code of Conduct be referred to the Monitoring Officer for investigation.