Issue - meetings

To submit the report of the Propriety and Elections Manager

To note the information.

Submitted – the report of the Monitoring Officer about the Ombudsman's decisions on formal complaints against members. It was reported that this was a summary of complaints that had been closed to provide the Committee with a snapshot of the type of things that were referred to the Ombudsman and the decisions made when assessing the complaints.

It was noted that the difference between the number of complaints that did not go to an investigation compared to the number of complaints made was quite striking. It was highlighted that there was an element of sympathy with the Ombudsman as every complaint had to receive attention.

It was noted that the intention at this meeting was to report on the training arrangements for town and community councils, but unfortunately, apologies were made that the agenda had slipped due to work pressures. Despite this, they managed to revisit the agenda and there was an intention to start offering training courses to the town and community councils in the near future. It was explained that experience suggested that training was important when dealing with such matters. It was also suggested that there was a need to offer an alternative solution path for low level complaints instead of only providing training.

Observations:

The members expressed their thanks for the report. In response to a question, the Monitoring Officer confirmed that the report on the training arrangements would be available for the next meeting.

There was an enquiry whether the Ombudsman considered using a threshold test for low level complaints, and if they did, whether there was a process to refer the low-level complaints back to the Council. In response, the Monitoring Officer explained that One Voice Wales had developed an internal solution arrangement for Town and Community Councils about 4 to 5 years ago. He reiterated that the local solution arrangement was difficult to implement as the town and community councils were small bodies in terms of staff and membership, and therefore, the element of trust to maintain the process was more difficult to create if there was genuine conflict in the Council.

The Monitoring Officer was thanked for his response, and it was asked further whether the resources in the fields that could benefit most from early training would be prioritised. The Monitoring Officer noted that he was in favour of tailoring the course to where the emphasis needed to be and that he was happy to pass the slides on to members from the previous course presented to members in January 2020. It was accepted that there was a lack of time to hold a course, but it was important to hit the most important points for discussion. It was also noted that it was important that town and community council clerks felt that there was professional support available for them.

A Representative of the Community Councils noted that he would be happy to go with the Chair or the Monitoring Office to any meeting to discuss training.