| 338 | RECORD OF THE MEETING |
| | | The record of the meeting held on 27 June 2007 was agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct.
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| 339 | URGENT MATTERS |
| | | The Chairman informed the Committee that, in an attempt to recruit a new Independent Member to the Committee, he was to write an article on "The day in the life of an Independent Standards Committee Chairman" which would include application details to be included in the next publication of Medway Matters magazine. |
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| 340 | STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND CONFERENCE |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Chairman and Monitoring Officer gave verbal reports to Members on their recent visit to the Standards Board for England Conference.
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| It was reported that the Standards Board for England proposed to introduce a Local Filter System starting from 1 April 2007 whereby all complaints about elected Members would go to Standards Hearing Panels. The Standards Hearing Panel would then decide whether a complaint against a Member was a breach of the Code of Conduct and that there would be a no sifting of complaints by the Monitoring Officer.
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| The Chairman stated that a Sub-Committee of Standards Committee Members would be needed to be formed and that there was a danger of these Sub-Committees being flooded with complaints of a trivial nature. |
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| | Decision: |
| | | It was agreed that the Chairman would formally write to all group leaders informing them of the implications of these changes and of the clear potential cost consequences of bad behaviour by Members in public circumstances. |
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| 341 | KENT AND MEDWAY INDEPENDENT GROUP UPDATE |
| | | The Chairman reported on the issues discussed at the recent meeting of the Kent and Medway Independent Group. |
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| 342 | THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OMBUDSMAN'S ANNUAL LETTER - MEDWAY COUNCIL |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Monitoring Officer introduced a report that gave details of the Local Government Ombudsman's Annual Letter for Medway Council. |
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| | > Appendix C - LGO Annual Letter (pdf file 17.2kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | The Committee noted the report. |
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