Agenda item

Documents attached:

Complaint

Report by the Investigating Officer

Shaftesbury Town Council minutes 18 February 2020

Email chain relating to complaints 08/20, 013/20, 023/20

The Chairman explained the process that would be followed for each of the three complaint hearings.

 

In response to a question from Cllr P Yeo the Chairman confirmed the Hearing Sub-Committee had watched the videos of the relevant Town Council meetings more than once and read the extensive pack of papers for each complaint.

 

In response to a question from Cllr K Tippins in relation to the relevance of the  Shaftesbury Town Council Code of Conduct and Bullying and Harassment Policy the Deputy Monitoring Officer confirmed it had been included in the Agenda pack for completeness as it was referred to in the complaints received.  It is also referred to in the Investigating Officers reports, including comment on its relevance.

 

Cllr K Tippins questioned the content of the Investigating Officer reports and why they did not refer to case law.  The Deputy Monitoring Officer confirmed the report is an Investigation Report and not a final decision, which is a matter for the Hearing Sub-Committee.

 

Ms J Andrews, Investigating Officer presented a summary of her investigation report into complaint 08/20 and outlined her findings that Cllr K Tippins breached the Code of Conduct by failing to treat the presenter with respect and behaved in such a way that could be regarded as bringing her office or the council into disrepute.

 

The Chairman then invited Cllr K Tippins to ask questions of the Investigating Officer relating to the investigation.  Cllr K Tippins asked questions in relation to:

She had not been informed until recently of the Independent Person’s initial view of February 2020  that the complaint did not warrant investigation and questioned why this did not form the basis of the Investigation Report ;

She had requested but not been provided with details of alleged wrong-doing’

Why Dorset Council had investigated the complaint and the cost justification;

Why the Investigation Report lacked reference to case law;

What evidence the Investigating Officer had to show the presenter was a guest of the committee;

Why the Investigating Officer had given an opinion that Cllr Tippins   was disinterested in the presentation;

There had been a 3 month delay in Cllr Tippins being informed of the complaint and meeting with the Investigating Officer.  Cllr K Tippins asked what evidence the Investigating Officer had seen that Cllr Tippins had her back to the screen.

 

The Investigating Officer responded to questions:

The Investigating Officer had been instructed by the Assessment Sub-Committee to conduct an investigation and the allegation was that Cllr K Tippins failed to turn to watch a presentation;

The Investigating Officer is not a lawyer and the Investigation Report contains her opinion reached following discussions held with Cllr K Tippins and the complainant; 

The presenter had been invited to speak and the Investigating Officer view was the presenter was a guest of the Town Council;

The meeting was held before current arrangements for live streaming of meetings and so there was no recording to view. 

 

The Chairman clarified that the Monitoring Officer had already acknowledged and apologised to Cllr K Tippins for the delay in providing details of the complaint to her.  The complaint had been made about Cllr K Tippins.  The Investigating Officer had been asked to investigate and it was not for the Investigating Officer to comment on an earlier decision of the Assessment Sub-Committee.  Cllr K Tippins view was acknowledged and would be taken into account by the Hearing Sub-Committee when reaching its decision.

 

The Chairman invited questions from Cllr R Adkins and Cllr W Trite, who both confirmed that they had no questions for the Investigating Officer.

 

The Independent Person, Mrs E Whatley confirmed that she had no questions for the Investigating Officer.

 

The Chairman invited Cllr K Tippins to present her response to the Sub-committee.

 

Cllr K Tippins made the following points:

The Investigation Report was not factual, did not refer to case law and was the Investigating Officers opinion only, which failed to take account of the context of the meeting;

The presenter had not complained;

Cllr K Tippins felt that she had been treated in a prejudicial and bias manner by Dorset Council;

The investigation process was flawed;

Cllr K Tippins was interested in the presentation and made copious notes;

Cllr K Tippins felt vexatiously picked on by the complainant and believed the complainant had a prejudicial interest;

Cllr K Tippins had asked about the grounds for the investigation but not received them;

Cllr K Tippins received the Independent Person view of February 2020 on 17 February 2021, which stated that the complaint did not warrant investigation.

 

The Investigating Officer had no questions.

In response to a question from Cllr W Trite, Cllr K Tippins stated that a complaint had been received from the same family of the complainant before.

 

Cllr R Adkins had no questions.

 

In response to a request for Cllr P Yeo to give witness evidence and on the advice of the Deputy Monitoring Officer, the Chairman declined the request as no advance notice had been given of Cllr P Yeo being called as witness and no witness statement had been received in advance of the hearing.

 

At that point (11.46am) members of the Sub-committee, Deputy Monitoring Officer and clerk to the committee moved into exempt business to  consider the decision of the Sub-committee.

 

At 12.19pm the members of the Sub-committee returned to the meeting to announce the decision. 

 

Prior to announcing the decision of the Sub-committee the Chairman, Cllr M Parkes, asked the Deputy Monitoring Officer to clarify some points that had been raised in the meeting in relation to the role of the independent person in the investigation process and case law and to confirm that Cllr Tippins had been given details of the complaint and opportunity to respond in the investigation and hearing.  The advice applied to each of the complaints before the Sub-committee.

 

The Chairman pointed out that the decision of the Sub-committee was final and that there was no right of reply and no right of appeal to Dorset Council.   

 

Decision

 

Members of the Sub-committee having reviewed the papers provided in the agenda pack and having listened very carefully to all of the comments made by all of the people taking part in the complaints felt that, irrespective of the background, any visiting members of the public and other councillors deserved to be treated with respect; as detailed in Section 2.1b of the Shaftesbury Town Council Code of Conduct.  The Sub-committee felt that Cllr Tippins fell somewhat short of what should have been expected and therefore also breached Section 2.2(g) of bringing the Council into disrepute.  

 

The Sub-committee decided that informal resolution was an appropriate and proportionate response to the complaint and therefore agreed that Cllr K Tippins be required to write a full letter of apology to the person from the football club making the presentation.