03
The Sub-Committee received and considered the report from the Monitoring Officer.
The Monitoring Officer reported that the purpose of the meeting is to determine whether the complaint passes an initial filtering stage which would indicate it warrants further investigation.Once the Sub-Committee has carefully considered the complaint, Members should determine the status of the complaint and whether there is any need for further action. The Sub-Committee might wish to have regard to the Employee Code of Conduct which is attached as Appendix 2 to the report.
The Monitoring Officer informed the Sub-Committee that they had three options, as detailed at paragraph 3.1 of the report:-
(i) No case to answer/no further action
(ii) Informal unrecorded oral warning
(iii) Case to answer/further investigation required.
The Leader reported that the Chief Executive Officer had responded to Mr Cunningham's email complaining about her staff and the management of the Selective Licensing Scheme and the approach to engaging with landlords and copied into the email the same people Mr Cunningham had copied into his email. The Chief Executive Officer had assumed that Mr Cunningham would want them to see her response, otherwise, why would he have copied them in to his correspondence.
The Leader reported that the Chief Executive Officer had responded that she felt that Mr Cunningham's comments were puerile and unhelpful. The Leader reported that he felt that the response was not impolite and reflected her concern for the staff who were subjected to unfounded, constant criticism whilst trying to carry out their role in a professional manner. The Leader felt that Mr Cunningham had taken the word "puerile" out of context as the word was directed at the comments and not Mr Cunningham himself and that there was no case to answer.
Councillor Plant reported that he agreed with the Leader that Mr Cunningham had taken the word "puerile" out of context as the word was directed at the comment and not Mr Cunningham who had often been very critical of officers who were just trying to do their jobs to the best of their ability and the Chief Executive Officer had a right to defend her staff against such criticism and he felt that there was no case to answer.
Councillor Wainwright reported that he echoed the comments which had been made by the Leader and Councillor Plant. He thought that the response from the Chief Executive Officer to Mr Cunningham had been written in a measured tone and that the word "puerile" had been taken out of context as the CEO was referring to the comments made by Mr Cunningham and not Mr Cunningham personally and that there was no case to answer.
RESOLVED:-
That the Sub-Committee agree that there is no case to answer and no further action is required.