Listeners to a local radio phone-in will have been intrigued to hear that an unnamed Swansea council cabinet member recently appeared before a specially convened disciplinary hearing. An added eyebrow-raising factor is that despite pleading guilty to the allegation of personal misconduct, this senior member was apparently afforded London-based legal representation at public expense.Our sources tell us that the councillor, who also serves on the Standards Committee, failed to mention that she was related to one of the successful school governor candidates that she had a hand in appointing. Matters were compounded by further allegations which led to two separate complaints to the Ombudsman. These were upheld leading to an appearance before an independent adjudication panel.
Strangely, the matter has managed to stay under the local paper’s extensive radar network and has gone unreported as a result. This also probably explains why no-one from the local press attended the public hearing. Of course, the situation is not helped by the insistence of the local Standards Committee to deal with all allegations in strict privacy, despite being urged by the Ombudsman to make its dealings more open and transparent.
Meanwhile, we are assured that the decision to provide the cabinet member with an external solicitor at a cost thought to be up to £5000 is entirely unrelated to the fact that the politician in question happens to have legal services under her portfolio.
5 Comments:
May we assume that the initials of the cabinet member are MJ and that the relation involved was her other half? If so, then there is absolutely no justification for her to be represented at public expense? Would a councillor who failed to declare an interest at a planning meeting be entitled to the same level of support?. I think not.
It is unbelievable that a disciplinary hearing against a senior cabinet member for personal misconduct has gone unreported in the local press. For all their carping on about independence, the EP is clearly no different to the sanitised municipal newspaper when informing the public of the murky goings-on at Swansea Council.
I am told that both Chris Holley and David Phillips were present at the proceedings. Perhaps they should be giving an account of what happened. Is there going to be another cover-up or maybe another sideways shuffle for an ex-cabinet member?
It’s not too long ago that the likes of Peter Black would have been demanding an explanation as to why the council is coughing up the legal costs of a councillor facing charges of personal misconduct.
The last Swansea councillor who failed to declare an interest and leave a meeting was suspended from office for a month by the adjudication panel. It will be interesting to see if a cabinet member who takes an active role in appointing a familiy member as a school governor gets something less.
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