Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer to submit a report seeking the acceptance of the Committee to the recommendations of the Hearing Panel following their determination of the complaint 2016/11 by Councillor Thomas against Councillor Porter.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report seeking the Committee’s acceptance of the recommendations of the Hearing Panel following their determination of the complaint 2016/11 by Councillor Thomas against Councillor Porter.

The Monitoring Officer stated that this was the first complaint that had been required to be dealt with by the Hearing Panel since the introduction of the Arrangements for Dealing with Standards Complaints under the Localism Act 2011. 

The Hearing Panel had considered the Monitoring Officer’s report on the complaint, Councillor Porter’s written response to the Monitoring Officer’s letter requesting that statement be put to the Standards Advisory Board, the documents submitted to the Standards Advisory Board’s, the Standards Advisory Board’s minutes, a series of correspondence between the Monitoring Officer and Councillor Porter in relation to the complaint and the arrangements for the Hearing Panel.

The Hearing Panel had found that there had been a breach of the Council’s Code of Conduct for Elected Members and had recommended that:-

·         A letter of censure be issued.

·         The Standards Committee publish the findings, and

·         That Councillor Porter be required to apologise to Councillor Thomas and the Full Council for his comments.

The findings of the Hearing Panel were advisory and the Standards Committee were now required to consider these findings and either endorse or reject them.  If the Committee rejected the findings of the Hearing Panel then that would be the end of the process for dealing with the complaint.

The Committee discussed the Monitoring Officer’s report, which included the minutes of the Hearing Panel and a letter sent to Councillor Porter setting out the detailed findings of the Hearing Panel.  The Monitoring Officer answered a number of questions relating to the complaints process and the options available to the Committee.

RESOLVED:-

1)         That the findings of the Standards Hearing Sub-Committee held on 10 April, as recorded in the minutes of that meeting, be endorsed.

2)         That a letter of reprimand issued to Councillor Porter on 3 May 2017 be endorsed.

3)       That the Monitoring Officer be asked to publish the findings of the Hearing Panel and the report submitted to the Committee on the Council’s website.

4)       That Councillor Porter be required to apologise to Councillor Thomas and the Full Council for his comments.

5)       That the Monitoring Officer inform Councillor Porter of the Committee’s decision in writing; and also informs him that the Committee expects a written apology to be issued to Councillor Thomas, with a copy to the Monitoring Officer, within 14 days of the date of the Monitoring Officer’s letter.  Councillor Porter should also be informed that a failure to comply with the Committee’s decision would result in the Monitoring Officer raising a further complaint under the Code of Conduct for Elected Members.

6)       That the Monitoring Officer also inform Councillor Porter that the Committee expects the apology to the Full Council to be made at the next Council Meeting on 6 July 2017.

7)       That the Monitoring Officer be authorised to issue a press statement 14 days after informing Councillor Porter of the Committee’s decision, detailing the findings of the Hearing Panel and the Committee’s decision and also indicating whether Councillor Porter had complied with the requirement to issue and apology to both Councillor Thomas and the Full Council.  Councillor Porter should be advised of this intention in the letter sent by the Monitoring Officer informing Councillor Porter of the Committee’s decision.