Issue - meetings

That the amended Flintshire Standard be recommended to Council for adoption.

The Chief Officer (Governance) introduced a report to review the expected standards of behaviour contained within the Flintshire Standard/Local Resolution Procedure.  He provided background information and explained that Officers had reviewed the Standard with Group Leaders and some amendments were suggested to expand and clarify expectations around behaviour.  The Standards Committee, at a meeting held on 2 September 2019, had endorsed the proposed changes and also suggested that complaints under the Standard be made within 3 months instead of 12 months.  As local resolution was intended to be a quick remedy the suggested change was consistent with the aims of the process.  

Councillor Chris Bithell referred to page 38, section 6, of the report and asked if the decision to proceed to stage 2 or stage 3 was made by the Monitoring Officer or the complainant.  He also referred to section 7, Stage 2 of the Procedure and, referring to the fourth bullet point, asked what the procedure would be if a Member was independent and did not belong to a group and did not have a Group Leader.  The Chief Officer responded to the points raised and agreed to give this further consideration.

Councillor Bithell referred to page 38, section 13 (b) and expressed the view that the statement ‘no further action is required’ was not satisfactory   if there was a basis to a complaint.  The Chief Officer referred to the three options available to the Standards Committee, as detailed in the report, and provided clarification and examples around how conclusions could be reached.  In response to a further question from Councillor Bithell concerning paragraph 16, page 39, the Chief Officer confirmed that a complainant had a statutory right to submit a complaint to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.  He said the Authority’s local procedures did not prevent a complaint being submitted to the Ombudsman that a Member had breached the Members Code of Conduct.   

Councillor Mike Peers referred to page 35 of the report and queried the need for a heading for Public Behaviour and a separate heading for Behaviour in Council and Committee meetings.  The Chief Officer suggested that the two headings could be combined to form a single heading ‘Behaviour expected towards others’ and this was agreed by the Committee.  Councillor Kevin Hughes suggested that reference be included under the heading to the need for Members to observe respectful behaviour when using social media and online communication. 

RESOLVED:

That the amended Flintshire Standard be recommended to Council for adoption.