Meeting documents
Standards Committee
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
standards committee
MINUTES of the Meeting held in the Council Chamber, Swale House, East Street, Sittingbourne on Tuesday 3rd June 2008 from 7:00 pm to 8:55 pm.
Present: Councillor David Simmons (Vice-Chairman), Councillors Cindy Davis, Pat Sandle, Manuella Tomes and Ghlin Whelan.
Officers Present: Philippa Davies and Mark Radford.
Also In Attendance: Messrs Nunn (Chairman) and Maclean (Independent Members) and Councillors Bowen and Mills (Parish Council Representatives) and Councillor Mike Henderson.
Apologies: Councillor Bryan Mulhern.
67 |
election of chairmanRESOLVED:
(1) That Mr Nunn be Chairman for this meeting and election of Chairman be deferred to the next meeting of the Standards Committee. Democratic Services Officer |
68 |
election of vice-chairmanRESOLVED:
(1) That Councillor David Simmons be elected Vice-Chairman for the Municipal Year 2008 - 2009. |
69 |
minutesThe Minutes of the Meeting held on 6th November 2007 were taken as read, confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record, subject to Mr Maclean being in attendance and Mr Nunn not being in attendance. |
70 |
declarations of interestNo interests were declared. |
part a minutes for confirmation |
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71 |
membership of sub-committeesThe Corporate Services Director, in his capacity as Monitoring Officer, introduced his report which had been submitted to the Executive in April 2008. He explained that the role of the Standards Committee was evolving and that any complaints about the behaviour of Members would now be dealt with at a local level, if possible. He advised that there would be three sub-committees, made up from members of the Standards Committee. These committees would be responsible for the three aspects of the process; referrals, appeals and hearings. The referral sub-committee would be the first sift of the process and the Monitoring Officer explained that it was difficult to estimate the demand on the Standards Committee and to predict any increased workload. Any complaint had to be considered within 20 days of its receipt. RECOMMENDED:
(1) That the Standards Committee takes a flexible approach with regard to the membership of the three sub-committees. (2) That the membership of the sub-committees be reviewed in six months time. |
72 |
training exerciseThe Corporate Services Director, in his role as Monitoring Officer, introduced his report which contained a number of case studies which he suggested the Standards Committee worked through together. He explained that they needed to ascertain, with regard to any breach of the Code of Conduct, what course of action would be appropriate.
The Corporate Services Director suggested the expected amount of cases that the sub-committees may have to consider were between six and eight per year. |
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