A City of York councillor has been cleared of an accusation that they knowingly misled citizens at a public meeting and breached the code of conduct.
The councillor was also found not to have made “false allegations and maligning of character which might be characterised for the purposes of the code as disrespect.”
City of York Council withheld the name of the councillor “on the grounds that it contains information relating to individuals and information likely to reveal the identity of individuals.”
Members of the press and the public were excluded from hearing the proceedings for the same reason.
Council documents do show, however, that the complaint was made by or against a member of the executive or shadow executive or a committee chair or deputy.
In a meeting held by the joint standards assessments subcommittee on September 18, details were discussed on how to proceed with the complaint.
The subcommittee, chaired by coun Tony Fisher, decided that the complaint was out of scope, as council officers recommended, because it “did not consider that this matter is capable of being a breach of the code of conduct.”
The meeting was concluded in 19 minutes.
Alternatively, the councilwas given the option to rule that the complaint is in scope and choose either take no further action, seek to resolve the matter informally or refer the matter for investigation.
The Local Government Association has advice for councillors on the code of conduct published on its website.
It says: “It is extremely important for you as a councillor to demonstrate high standards, for you to have your actions open to scrutiny and for you not to undermine public trust in the local authority or its governance.
“If you do not understand or are concerned about the local authority’s processes in handling a complaint you should raise this with your monitoring officer.”