Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Kemp and Wildey.

To approve the record of the meeting held on 7 November 2018. 

The record of the meeting held on 7 November 2018 was agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct.

There were none.

Members are invited to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Significant Interests in accordance with the Member Code of Conduct.  Guidance on this is set out in agenda item 4.

Disclosable pecuniary interests

There were none.

Other significant interests (OSIs)

There were none.

Other interests

Councillor Gulvin declared an interest in relation to item 5 (Request for Dispensation) as he was also a Cabinet Member and he had responsibility for Joint Ventures listed within his portfolio.  However, this did not prevent him from taking part in the discussion and decision of this item.

This report informs the Committee of a dispensation that has been granted by the Monitoring Officer for a Cabinet Member who is also a Director of a Council Company.

Discussion:

The Deputy Monitoring Officer introduced the report which informed the Committee of a dispensation that had been granted by the Monitoring Officer using his delegation at Section 6.17 of the Employee Delegation Scheme within the Council’s Constitution.  The delegation provided the Monitoring Officer with the ability to grant dispensations where the timing of a request would make it impractical to convene a meeting of the Councillor Conduct Committee.

Decision:

The Committee noted that the Monitoring Officer had granted a dispensation until 28 June 2019 to Councillor Doe for the reasons set out in section 4 of the report to allow participation in debate and/or to vote on any item at Cabinet, Council and any other Committee meeting of the Council (except regulatory committees) in which he has an other significant interest in relation to his position as Director of Medway Commercial Group Limited.

This report summarises the content of agenda item7, which, in the opinion of the proper officer, contains exempt information within one of the categories in Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. It is a matter for the Committee to determine whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the document. 

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the exempt material relating to agenda item 7 (Screening of complaint CCC/2018/006) because consideration of these matters in public would disclose information falling within Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as specified in agenda item 6and, in all the circumstances of the case, the Committee considers that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. 

The Committee is requested to consider a complaint relating to Councillor conduct.

Discussion

The Deputy Monitoring officer introduced a report which detailed a complaint received on 19 October 2018 relating to a Medway Councillor. The Committee considered the complaint as detailed in section 2 of the report along with the full complaint submission and additional evidence, which were appended to the report.  

Decision:

The Committee agreed to take no further action in relation to complaint CCC/2018/006, as having completed the Screening Process, the Committee determined that based on the evidence provided, the Councillor had not beached the Member Code of Conduct.