Minutes for Standards Committee meeting, Sep 17 2009, 10.00AM official page

Apologies for absence were received from Mr. N. Edwards (Chair), Councillors Bigley and Brady, Parish Councillor D. Warren and Mr. C. Galloway, Assistant Chief Executive (Communications).

Members and Officers are requested to give notice of any personal or prejudicial interest and the nature of that interest, relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the relevant Code of Conduct.

No declarations of interest were received.

Minutes of the meeting held on 16 July 2009

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 16 July 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

Joint report of the Legal Director and the Assistant Chief Executive (Communications)

Further to Minute No. 26 of the meeting of the Council held on 3 September 2009, the Committee considered the joint report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Communications) and the Legal Director seeking approval for a set of guidelines governing the ways in which the elected Members’ media relations should operate.

The revised guidelines had previously been circulated to the three Political Groups and considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board at its meeting on the 23 June 2009, the Cabinet Member - Performance and Governance on 8 July 2009 and the Standards Committee on 16 July 2009.

At the meeting of the Cabinet on 6 August 2009 the matter was deferred pending final comments.  The ninth draft was represented to the Cabinet and Council on the 3 September 2009 and it was decided that the item be deferred for consideration at the next Council meeting to be held on 22 October 2009, to enable the Standards Committee and then the Cabinet to give further consideration to the revised guidelines before they are submitted to Council for approval.

The Legal Director reported that following the Council meeting on 3 September 2009, officers had met with representatives of the Liberal Democrat Group to discuss further amendments to the guidelines and she circulated a copy of the 10th draft of the guidelines for consideration by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

That subject to the following amendments, the guidelines be submitted to the Cabinet for endorsement and the Council for approval:

• Section 1 - 4th bullet point

Amend final sentence to read “and Ward Members of relevant Wards have been informed”

• Section 3 – 2nd bullet point

Add the words “This includes the way Members voted on the issue unless a recorded vote was taken at the meeting”

• Section 3 – 3^rd bullet point

Add the words “Councillors should not disclose or publicise the decision until it has been officially announced”

Report of the Legal Director

The Committee considered the report of the Legal Director on the latest advice from Standards for England (formerly the Standards Board) in relation to imposing a sanction of a written apology.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

Report of the Legal Director

The Committee considered the report of the Legal Director which provided details of a recent important judgement of the Adjudication Panel for England which dealt with the intimidation of a complainant under Paragraph 3(2)(c) of the Code of Conduct.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.