The Report was introduced by Councillor Stone, the Chairman of the Council’s Audit and Governance Committee.  Councillor Stone observed that this was a case that fell within the transitional period between the old and new standards regimes.  Councillor Stone also confirmed that the Council had set up a new Independent Standards panel four months ago and that Audit and Governance Committee agreed that this report should be presented to full Council.

In the discussion that followed, the following issues were raised:-

·        Some Councillors expressed the view that the Subject Member’s conduct had fallen well below the standard of honesty and integrity expected.  There were concerns that Councillors would be tarnished as peers.

·        Concern was expressed about the subject member entering the office and removing an envelope.

·        It was noted that no expression of remorse had been put forward.

·        Not all Councillors agreed they were brought into disrepute by the actions of another Councillor.

·        There were concerns that some Councillors may have had the benefit of access to the investigation report that other Councillors had not and that evidence should be properly considered.

·        That concerns should perhaps be diverted towards the lack of robustness in the current process and that the Council’s options were limited.

·        That sometimes it was in the public interest to ‘whistle blow’.

·        That in this case the Subject Member made no attempt to seek advice in respect of the decision to disclose the report in Complaint 1209.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer confirmed that the process these complaints had gone through was a properly recognised one.  The decision of the Audit and Governance Committee was the most action they could take and that the options open to Council was solely to either note the incident or issue a censure.

The Leader confirmed that the investigation report had been supplied in response to a Freedom of Information request.  The Leader stated he would check who had access to the report.  To enable the subject member to have his say and address the Full Council, the Leader proposed that the Chief Executive, the Leader and the Chairman of Audit and Corporate Governance Committee look at the process and make recommendations back to Council and that the item be referred back to Full Council.  This was seconded and UNANIMOUSLY agreed.

RESOLVED

That this item be brought back to Council with Councillor MAF Hubbard being given the opportunity to attend.