A councillor was called upon to apologise and take training for code of conduct breaches including allegations of bullying, harassment or intimidation.
Independent Councillor Donna Jones was found to have breached three code of conduct principles by Middlesbrough Council’s standards committee.
A meeting of the committee also heard how 12 separate complaints had been halted because they were against other councillors who had not been re-elected in May.
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The committee has now asked for a change to the council’s constitution at a meeting on Monday (October 16). If approved, it will allow investigations of complaints to continue even if a councillor is no longer serving on the council.
Deputy monitoring officer Andrew Perriman said: “There was a meeting held in private on September 22 this year. The committee concluded that Cllr Jones, acting in her capacity as a member of Middlesbrough Council, had breached principles 1, 2 and 10 of the members code of conduct, in that she did not treat others with civility and respect, has bullied, harassed or intimidated another person and brought her role or the local authority into disrepute. That was in respect of two standards complaints that were brought by two individuals.
“They (the committee) ordered that Cllr Jones be sanctioned. Those sanctions were that Cllr Jones to write a letter of apology to the complainants within 28 days, Cllr Jones to undertake further training in relation to the code of conduct and conduct at meetings, and Cllr Jones would not be eligible to be a member of the children and young people’s scrutiny panel for a period of 12 months from the date of the standards committee meeting.
“We are in the process of determining whether a letter of apology has been written. We’re fully conscious about preparing a date for Cllr Jones to attend for her training. Things are in hand to deal with that.”
The details of the complaints and reasons for the findings have not been made public. The press and public were excluded from the meeting which decided the matter due to information deemed exempt. Cllr Jones, Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association member for Berwick Hills and Pallister, declined to comment when given the opportunity to respond by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Of 49 complaints made this year, 23 were rejected, eight discontinued, five resolved with advice and guidance and one withdrawn. This left 12 complaints, which have now been closed.
Charlotte Benjamin, director of legal and governance services, said: “There were a number of complaints that were still outstanding in relation to former members of the council who were not re-elected. The question was raised, what happens to those complaints?
“Our code doesn’t allow for such complaints to continue. I’ve reached the decision in relation to those complaints that were still outstanding after the elections, that they will not be taken forward, because there’s no jurisdiction to do so… Those 12 have now ended.”
Councillors debated changing the constitution to allow such complaints against ex-councillors to be taken forward if in the public interest. Ms Benjamin: “There’s likely to be a potential appetite for that sort of question to be addressed in the future.”
Cllr Janet Thompson said: “In my view there were appointed at that time when the incident took place and basically got away with it. Somebody suffered while they were in employment, so because they didn’t get re-elected, I don’t think that makes a difference.”
Cllr Dennis McCabe said: “What would we do with them, because they’re no longer councillors, other than invite them in and name and shame them? You can’t hit them with a sanction, you can’t take them off a committee, you can’t give them training.”
Ms Benjamin said: “There wasn’t a finding made so it’s not appropriate to say they got away with it or somebody was a victim as such. There was no assessment made.
“Those complaints have been closed. I hear what you say about the possibility of that sort of thing needing to be aired in the future, depending on the circumstances.
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“There will be a resource involved in taking these matters forward and there would be a limit as to the sanctions that could be applied, if any. I suspect the only sanction would be a censure. It would be a matter of public record if a finding was made.
“Considerations that could come into play would be, is there a likelihood of re-election, does the person hold another public office and are they a public figure. And the public interest, is that served by them being held to account for any potential breach?”
She said some investigations could be costly. This would be factored in when deciding whether it is proportionate, appropriate or beneficial to go ahead.
Councillors voted 4-3 for a constitution change to be drafted. It will eventually go to the full council for consideration.
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