More official complaints have been made about councillors’ conduct in the past three months than in the whole of 2019.
Fourteen complaints were lodged in the first quarter of this year, compared with 13 in 2019, – although the annual number jumped in 2020 to 33 and rose again last year to 36.
Nine complaints were made about comments on social media by Conservative councillor Robert Nemeth in online exchanges about a story in the Daily Mail in February.
The story was headlined: “Parent fury as Brighton primary schools tell staff NOT to say ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ and use ‘grown ups’ instead to avoid stigmatising ‘non-traditional’ families.”
Brighton and Hove City Council published a statement saying: “Recent reports claiming four Brighton schools are not allowing the words ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ to be used are untrue.”
As well as nine complaints about Councillor Nemeth’s comments, another complaint was made about fellow Conservative councillor Dawn Barnett who was quoted in the press on the same subject.
The complaints are logged – without naming the two councillors – in a report to the council’s Audit and Standards Committee which is due to meet next week.
Previously, Labour councillor Daniel Yates, who chairs the committee, has identified himself as the subject of complaints.
The latest update is understood to include two complaints made by Labour and Conservative members about the conduct of Green councillor Hannah Clare when she chaired the council’s Children, Young People and Skills Committee on Monday 7 March.
Councillor Clare said that she was not aware of any complaints and declined to comment on the matter.
Two members of the public have also submitted complaints about councillors failing to treat them “with respect”.
A further seven complaints from last year have yet to be resolved, with four of the outstanding complaints having been made about one councillor.
Last year the council revised its code of conduct and encouraged councillors to take refresher training so that they might “promote and maintain high standards of conduct”.
And a specialist external trainer was brought in to help councillors use social media without breaching the council’s code of conduct.
Every council is required to adopt a code of conduct which “must conform to the seven ‘Nolan’ principles of standards in public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership”.
But since the Localism Act 2010, the council’s Standards Committee has had no power to suspend councillors although it can censure members and recommend training which they can ignore.
The latest standards update includes a letter to the council from government minister Kemi Badenoch, who studied at Sussex University.
Ms Badenoch, the Minister of State for Equalities and Levelling Up Communities, said: “Vibrant local democracies flourish where the reputation of the local authority is held in high regard, where councillors’ decision-making is transparent, valued and trusted by the communities they serve and where people are willing and confident to put themselves forward as potential candidates.
“The standards and conduct framework within which local authorities operate must drive out corruption and promote commitment to the principles on standards in public life and tolerance to the differing views of others.”
She underlined the government’s commitment to the importance of protecting free speech, adding that ministers had no intention of bringing back the previous “flawed regime”, which allowed for councillors to be suspended.
She said: “There is no provision in current legislation for a sanction to suspend a councillor found to have breached the code of conduct and this was a deliberate policy decision by the coalition government at the time of the Localism Act 2011 to differentiate from the previous failed ‘Standards Board’ regime.
“The Standards Board regime allowed politically motivated and vexatious complaints and had a chilling effect on free speech within local government.”
And she added: “All councillors are ultimately held to account via the ballot box.”
The council’s Audit and Standards Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Tuesday (19 April). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
There’s a lot of politically motivated whining from people on all sides of the debate and way too many people with a thin skin. If you don’t like these people, vote them out. Perhaps even lobby their party to deselect them if they’re likely to deter voters. The whole standards complaints system stinks and should be scrapped.