Agenda item
Code of Conduct for Members - Complaint Monitoring
Minutes:
The Deputy Monitoring Officer presented the report which outlined the current position on the monitoring of Code of Conduct for Members complaints. Details were provided at Appendix 1 to the report which, following Members’ request, now included a dashboard summarising groupings of complaints and their status. He highlighted that:
· most complaints had now been resolved and two new complaints had been lodged which had been referred for initial assessment.
· the Monitoring Officer is required to consult the Independent Person before deciding if complaints should be referred for investigation.
The Committee considered the data and in response to Members’ questions the following information was provided.
- Details of some complaints considered by the Clear-Up Project Board had been included to provide a full auditable trail of the outcomes of the cases in this project:
- Recently, fewer Councillor-to-Councillor complaints had been lodged and public complaints had increased. The Corporate Director Governance noted that this pattern reflected what may be found at other councils. Additionally it indicated that the Authority had moved towards a normal environment and that the public understood and had confidence in the use of the complaint mechanism.
- Concerning complaint 008/2017, the investigation had taken a protracted time to complete and the complainant had been dissatisfied because of the lack of progress in investigating the complaint. The Corporate Director had apologised to the complainant and efforts to bring the investigation to a conclusion were redoubled. An analysis of how the complaint was handled including the timeline was tabled and the circumstances of the matter noted. The breach concerned an inappropriate use of position but no illegal activity had been identified and therefore the Police were not notified. The investigation concluded that a former Councillor did not act solely in the public interest and improperly used Council resources. Since the conclusion of the investigation the former Councillor involved had offered an apology they were no longer serving as an elected member therefore it was not possible to formally censure nor was he/she required to cooperate in regard to any sanctions. However the Corporate Director would be writing to the former councillor on the matter to reinforce the need to comply with the Code in the event that they hold office as a councillor in the future.
- The corporate director would also write to complainant and explain the actions that had been taken and if the complainant responded their response would also be reported to the Committee in due course.
The Committee requested:
- That future complaints be reported in municipal year chronology
- That sub-totals be included in the dashboard.
- That the dashboard be expanded to include graphical data in the form of bar charts or pie charts showing relevant data and totals. The Chair and Vice-Chair should be consulted on the format once decided.
- That timescales on each element of investigations should be factored into the investigation procedure and its monitoring and that these should outline the reasons for any delays. It was agreed that a form of time monitoring would factored to enable detailed analysis. It was greed that a target date for investigations would also be included in the monitoring information provided to the Committee.
RESOLVED
- Note the content of this report and consider the information contained in Appendix 1.
- That the above actions requested by Members be taken forward.
ACTION BY:M Norman, Legal Adviser and Deputy Monitoring Officer
B McKenzie, Head of Member Support
A Burgio, Democratic Services Officer
Supporting documents:
- Code of Conduct for Members - Complaint Monitoring S(A)C report October 2018, item 3.1 PDF 82 KB
- Appendix 1 Complaint Monitoring 24.10.18, item 3.1 PDF 89 KB