Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered its Draft Annual Report for submission to the Court of Common Council.

The Chairman highlighted that further information regarding the outcome of the Appeal Process would now need to be inserted at Paragraph 8 of the report. Paragraph 3 would also be amended to reflect the second complaint referred to the Standards Committee in 2015/16 and rejected at the Assessment Stage.

In response to questions, the Town Clerk reported that it was proposed that the two complaints considered by the Committee in 2015/16 would be referred to anonymously as had been the case in previous years within the annual report. The Chairman agreed that he felt it would be inappropriate to name the respondents in this document. The Town Clerk added that all of the decision notices from each stage of the complaints process were public documents and that the process, outcome and individuals concerned were therefore already widely known.

The Comptroller and City Solicitor reported that the decision of the Appeal Sub (Standards) Committee also contained a recommendation to the Standards Committee that a letter be distributed to all elected Members citing the outcome of the complaints process and strongly advising that all attend forthcoming training to be arranged by the Town Clerk and Comptroller and City Solicitor on the Member/Officer Protocol focusing on “How to Engage Appropriately with Electors and Officers”.

The Chairman reported that naming the respondent in a report to the Court of Common Council had already been carefully considered by the Appeal Sub Committee who had made it clear that they felt that a formal report of censure to this audience was inappropriate. He questioned whether naming the respondent within this report would, to some extent, contravene this ruling.

Members discussed the matter further and the Committee unanimously came to the conclusion that full details of the complaint, including the name of the respondent, should feature within the Annual Report given that the details of the complaint and appeal procedures were already within the public domain and that this had made up a substantial part of the Standards Committee’s work this municipal year.  Members also highlighted that detailing the case within the Committee’s Annual Report did not amount to a formal report of censure to the Court of Common Council and did not, therefore, contravene the decision of the Appeal Sub Committee.

With regard to the recommendation of the Appeal Sub (Standards) Committee that a letter citing the complaint and recommending that all Members now attend forthcoming training sessions around how to engage appropriately with electors and Officers should be issued by the Standards Committee, the Committee agreed that this should be issued to all Co-opted as well as directly elected Members of the City Corporation as all were subject to the Corporation’s Code of Conduct.

The Committee agreed that the contents of the letter should be approved by the Town Clerk in consultation with the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Comptroller and City Solicitor.

RESOLVED – That:-

(a)   the contents of the annual report be amended and approved by the Town Clerk in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman under delegated authority; and,

(b)   in accordance with the Committee’s terms of reference, the annual report be referred to the Court of Common Council for information.