Extra Agenda Item

Question

I love all the things you have assisted me with, everyone!

At the last council meeting, the Chairman decided since we were on confidential session, to end the meeting by telling half of the councillors off for their use of social media to bring up council issues. She spoke about it for a gd 5-10 minutes and one councillor stated that because it wasn't on the agenda it shouldn't have been discussed. Is this legal?

To further anger people, she allowed a man who I have had to block on social media and half of the councillors including a youth member of Parliament, to lambast me during public participation. To be fair, he was looking for a reaction, which I wouldn't give him. But, she said none of us could answer to what they were saying (such as saying I was acting like a petulant child) and when she allows the public to speak dispargingly, it encourages it. So now, whenever I am at Full Council I now have to deal with the abuse that I have blocked on social media. The Clerk is scared of everyone so won't say anything and the Chair had always allowed abuse to go on. However, I am getting really tired of this and instead of doing an official complaint would like to make the Clerk and Chairman know that it is wrong to allow someone act this way. I would rather just quote some laws and what would happen if she continues to allow this, such as it brings the role of Councillor in a poor light etc. Any ideas welcome.

Answer 1

Yes the chair acted unlawfully, five minutes amounts to more time than many listed agenda  items last for.  Furthermore, members are entitled to share their views about how their councils operate in the public domain. The chair is not entitled to act in a supervisory or disciplinary capacity towards other members, so they would have been within their rights to give the chair a counter telling off for trying to do things not in her gift. In being subjected to abuse, I think the chair  may have breached the code of conduct and should be reported to the monitoring officer. Allowing the public to take pot shots at you is conferring a disadvantage on you and failing to treat you with respect arguably.

Comments

How can you report the Clerk to the Monitoring Officer for a breach of the Code of Conduct?  Clerks aren't elected and aren't subject to the Code of Conduct - they are subject to the council's disciplinary procedure.

And as I said before, the Clerk is not the controller of the meeting and as an employee of the council, it is not appropriate for them to discipline a councillor - it is for the other councillors as peers to stop the Chair from their actions.

Why are you blaming the Clerk here when it is clear that the chair has overstepped the line...?

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Not sure what happened there, I wonder if my tablet acted up? You are absolutely right and I will correct the post.

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That's a relief Graeme_r, I thought you were going rogue there :-)

Answer 2

The Chair is in charge of meetings and not the Clerk so it would not be the Clerks' position to control public participation.  The Clerk is there to provide procedural advice if asked. No all Clerks are confident communicators and would be able to stand up to aggression.

Standing orders normally includes for the removal of disruptive members of the public and councillors and this would be initiated by raising a point of order and referring to the standing orders in question.  Any councillor could do this and call for a vote.