Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room A - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. View directions

Contact: Elizabeth Patterson  01597 826980

Items
No. Item

S1-2017

Minutes pdf icon PDF 98 KB

To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the previous meeting(s) of the Committee held on the following dates(s) as a correct record:

·         5th October 2016

Minutes:

The Chair was authorised to sign the minutes of the meeting held on the 5th October 2016 as a correct record subject to the following amendments:

 

In E.1 Member attendance to make it clear that it is Cllr P Harris to which this matter refers.

S2-2017

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

S3-2017

Declarations of interest

To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

S4-2017

Report of the Solicitor to the Council pdf icon PDF 231 KB

To receive the report of the Solicitor to the Council.

Minutes:

The committee received the report of the Solicitor to the Council (copy filed with signed minutes).

 

A         General Standards Issues for County Councillors and Co-opted Members

 

A1       Code of Conduct Training

 

The Head of Democratic Services confirmed that two Councillors had now submitted responses which meant that there remained two Councillors who had not undertaken refresher training.  Members were of the view that it would be appropriate for this training to take place within the current term of office and it was

 

RESOLVED that Cllr G Price and Cllr G Jones be invited to attend refresher training on the Members Code of Conduct prior to the end of this term of office.

 

B         Referral of Councillors to the Public Services Ombudsman

 

B1       County Council Referrals

 

The current position regarding existing matters with the Ombudsman is as follows:

 

6/15/CC         With the Adjudication Panel for Wales

8/15/CC         Referred to the Standards Committee

9/15//CC        Referred to the Standards Committee

04/16/CC       Ombudsman investigating

07/16/CC       Investigation ended.  No breach found.

09/CC/2016   Ombudsman investigating

10/CC/2016   Ombudsman investigating

15/CC/2016   Ombudsman investigating

16/CC/2016   Ombudsman investigating

17/CC/2106   Ombudsman investigating

 

C.        Other Standards Issues

 

None.

 

D         Dispensations

 

D1.      Applications - County Councillors

 

            No applications for dispensation have been received from County Councillors.

 

E.        Attendance

 

E.1      Member attendance

The Head of Democratic Services presented full attendance data as recorded on the Council’s ‘Modern’ system.  It was noted that not all Member meetings are recorded on this system (such as attendance at Fostering Panel or Employment Hearings).  Neither did this system include Member attendance at other meetings attended in their role as Councillor (such as Governing Bodies, Mid Wales Health Care Collaborative etc).  It was noted that it would be inaccurate to publish attendance figures including some but not all of a Councillors workload.

 

RESOLVED that this matter be deferred to the next meeting of the Standards Committee when further detail of other meetings attended by Councillors will be sought.

 

F          Ombudsman’s Casebook

 

The Ombudsman had published the July 2016 – September 2016 Code of Conduct Casebooks which can be accessed at.

 

http://www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk/en/publications/The-Code-of-Conduct-Casebook.aspx

 

(Copy filed with signed minutes)

 

G         Ombudsman’s Annual Report

 

The Ombudsman had published his Annual Report for 2015-16 which could be accessed from the website of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales at http://www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk/en/publications/Annual-reports.aspx

 

This report covers both service complaints and code of conduct complaints.

 

H         Local Resolution

 

In 2013 the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales issued guidance on the Code of Conduct for Members of Local Authorities and recommended that a local resolution procedure was adopted to deal with low level complaints made by a Member against a fellow Member.

 

The Standards Committee adopted the Local Resolution, as contained within Section 25 of the Constitution on the 25th of June 2014.   

 

The objective of the local resolution procedure adopted by the Council is to engage early and at a relatively informal level with a view to nipping issues in the bud with minimal involvement from the Monitoring Office and Standards Committee.

 

Since this was introduced the  ...  view the full minutes text for item S4-2017