Agenda and draft minutes

To elect a Chairman for the meeting.

It was proposed by Cllr Batstone and seconded by Cllr Gray:

Decision

That Cllr Cocking be elected as Chairman of the Sub-Committee.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct.  In making their decision councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To note the Sub-Committee’s terms of reference:-

Audit and Governance (Hearing) Sub-Committees for the consideration of Code of Conduct Issues

(a)        The Audit and Governance Committee shall arrange that, to the extent it is called upon to determine any allegation relating to a Member Code of Code (including that of a Town Council or a Parish Council), the determination shall be made by a Sub-Committee of the Audit and Governance Committee.  An Audit and Governance Sub-Committee with such responsibility may include non-Members.  An Audit and Governance Sub-Committee that has non-Members forming part of it shall not have any power relating to the regulation and/or control of the finances of the Council.

(b)        Substitutes may only be appointed to an Audit and Governance Sub-Committee from the membership of the Audit and Governance Committee.  There shall be no power to appoint non Member substitutes.

To note the Dorset Council Member Complaint Process (attached).

The terms of reference and complaint process were noted.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972.  The reason for urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To consider passing the following recommendation:  

Recommendation  

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting for the business specified in item(s) No 7 because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) 1 and 2 of Part 1 of schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.  

The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered. (Any live streaming will end at this juncture).  

Reason for taking the item in private:

Paragraph 1 - Information relating to any individual.  

Paragraph 2 - Information which is likely to reveal identity of an individual.  

The Chairman of the Sub-committee asked if there were any objections to the meeting being held in public, as there were none the meetings was held in open session.

To consider the report.

The Chairman opened this item by inviting Cllr Pipe to outline his position as the subject member of the complaint before the sub-committee.

Cllr Pipe explained that:

·         He had historically greeted Interviewee A using by mimicking their accent, and had done so for many years.

·         Interviewee A had never raised this as an issue with him, nor, to his knowledge, with the leader of the council, Interviewee A’s line manager or a superior officer about this.

·         He would not have carried on with this way of greeting them had he have known that it offended or belittled them and would have stopped immediately and apologised.

·         He was not a ‘nasty’ person, but as he had not been made aware of the situation believed that Interviewee A had taken the greetings in the spirit in which it was intended, which was to be jovial.

·         He had drafted an apology subsequent to the issue finally being raised with him, which was never sent to Interviewee, due to a miscommunication, which he subsequently read to the sub-committee.

He further added that there were other accusations in the report that he did not recognise, which he listed and stated that he would therefore not provide comment on them.

The Investigating Officer introduced her report which set out the nature of the complaint received, the process she followed when undertaking the investigation and set out her findings. She referred sub-committee members to the interviews that had been included in Appendix A to the report and the supporting information that had been included as Appendix B. 

In setting out her findings, she raised the following points:

·        Cllr Pipe mimicked the accent of Interviewee A at an internal officer team meeting in May 2023

·        At the meeting of the People and Health Scrutiny Committee held on 11 September 2023, he mocked Interviewee A, making a point of he was speaking in an English accent.

·        Cllr Pipe discussed where Interviewee A had parked their car and then jokingly gave the impression that he would steal their parking space.

·        Cllr Pipe didn’t dispute the findings of the above points and had drafted an apology, which was sent to the leader and deputy leader of the council, but this was not sent to Interviewee A or their line manager and therefore it was considered that an apology was not made.

·        Although not formally stated in the reason for Cllr Pipe’s resignation from the role of Lead Member for Education, the behaviour of Cllr Pipe at the internal officer Meeting was a significant factor in his resignation from this position.

·        Cllr Pipe’s comments and behaviour amounted to bullying and harassment as the actions were directed to one individual.

·        Although Cllr Pipe did not view his actions in this way, there was a perceived racist element to his actions.

·        There was one concern raised in the complaint where the Investigating Officer did not consider the evidence was conclusive, which related to the full council meeting in July 2023 and whether a briefcase  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.