The Independent Person will provide their views on this matter as to whether there has been a failure to comply with the Code of Conduct, which the Committee will take into account before it makes its decision on the allegation that has been investigated.
Minutes:
The Independent Person then had the opportunity to provide their views on this matter as to whether there had been a failure to comply with the Code of Conduct, which the Committee would take into account before it made its decision on the allegation.
Sue Gallone (Independent Person) made the following statement:-
“My views are on whether I consider there to have been a breach of the Code of Conduct. I’ve read all of the papers and I’ve listened very carefully to what we’ve heard here today. I’m very mindful that we’re talking here about the balance of probabilities and therefore I’ve given some attention to the weight of the evidence in front of us which are the statements from those at the meetings, the complaint itself, Councillor Turner’s account of these events, the small comment in the chat and the minutes of the meetings that have been available to the Investigator as well.
It seems to me that the events have taken place. Nobody really disagrees with that. It’s the extent and strength of feeling that’s at dispute here in my view. We’ve had representations that Councillor Turner is robust and passionate in his beliefs and he puts that over and that is understandable for a Councillor. The question I feel is how far have those comments gone, have they gone too far. In my view in going to those four alleged breaches of the Code, I would say that items 1 and 2 have been breached based on the behaviour at the meetings on the 5th June and 29th June.
On the 5th June there appears to have been a personal attack on the representative of the Environment Agency and the SIG themselves. On the 29th June there was certainly a verbal attack on the RNLI representative who was treated, as the witnesses have attested, disrespectfully.
I think that it is also important to take into account that both of those meetings were disrupted quite significantly in achieving their purpose. So in that way I do think that the Code of Conduct which requires Councillors to treat other Councillors with respect and also to treat other representatives and partner organisations with respect, has been breached in my view. I think that also leads to the fourth alleged breach namely bringing TDC into disrepute and I do think that has done that by treating others without respect.
The third item, about failing to promote equalities in a discriminatory matter I found more difficult to form a view on. I have looked at the headline of the Code, which is about saying that discrimination is unfair treatment towards particular groups. I don’t see that in the accounts that we have of the meetings. I think those with protected characteristics haven’t been subject to unfair treatment but when you look at the LGA guidance notes and indeed Mr. Kenyon has drawn attention to these in his report’s conclusions, we also have to consider whether there were any comments, slurs, jokes, statements, questions or gestures that were derogatory or offensive to an individual’s or group’s characteristics and whether any of the comments promoted negative stereotypes relating to an individual’s or group’s characteristics and I think that the comments made could be seen in that particular light. I do believe these are very sensitive matters and as has been said Councillor Turner hasn’t been afraid to raise these matters the language and perhaps the setting has been clumsy here but I do think it hasn’t met the guidance about the Code of Conduct in that case.
So those are my views on the breach of the Code of Conduct for the Committee to consider.”
In response to a question raised by the Head of Democratic Services (Keith Simmons) as to whether she had a view on the matter of Councillor Turner acting ‘in capacity’, Sue Gallone informed the Committee that her view was that Councillor Turner had been acting ‘in capacity’.