Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Board Room, Council Offices, Coalville

Contact: Democratic Services Officer  01530 454512

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chairman

Minutes:

RESOLVED THAT:

 

Councillor C Large be elected Chairman for this meeting.

 

2.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

No apologies had been received and therefore the Chairman confirmed that the meeting was quorate.

 

3.

Declaration of Interests

Members are requested to declare any interests connected to this matter and to identify the nature of that interest as to whether it is pecuniary or non pecuniary under the Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

4.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

Assessment Sub-Committee to decide whether the press and public should be excluded from the hearing and the grounds for the exclusion based on representations from all parties.

Minutes:

Members of the Assessment Sub-committee were asked if they had any reason to consider that the public and press should be excluded from the meeting.

RESOLVED THAT:

 

In pursuance of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that the business to be transacted involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act and that the public interest in maintaining this exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

5.

Allegations of a Failure to Observe the Code of Conduct

Report of the Head of Legal and Support Services

Minutes:

The Monitoring Officer presented the report to Members.

 

Given that the informal resolution process had been unsuccessful, the matter had been referred to the Assessment Sub-Committee in order that it could consider the report and determine whether to:

 

- refer the complaint to the Monitoring Officer to take other action;

 

- request further information from the parties;

 

- refer the complaint to the Monitoring Officer for investigation;

 

- determine that no further action be taken in respect of the complaint.

 

Members considered the Monitoring Officer’s report and following questions and proposals raised it was

 

RESOLVED THAT:

 

No further action be taken in respect of the complaint, but that the Decision Notice include a summary of when the Code of Conduct applies and some guidance as a reminder to all Members concerned.

 

Reason for Decision

(i)                   That the offer for the Monitoring Officer to see the draft letter of apology was an offer and not a binding requirement.

 

(ii)                 However, on receiving the letter of apology and the additional information from the Monitoring Officer, the subject of the complaint was satisfied with the outcome of the complaints process and did not wish to take it further.

 

(iii)               That there were some discrepancies in the information provided, about when and the extent to which the subject of the complaint knew about the alleged comments.

 

(iv)               In addition, considerable time and work had been put into working with parties to resolve the matter.

 

(v)                On balance, the Sub-committee felt that it would not be reasonable to spend further council resources on commissioning an investigation into the complainee’s conduct.