Conservative Councillor Gene Plews Rutland County Council breached code of conduct
A long time ago I asked Rutland Rutland County County to provide me with copies of emails sent between via its systems it took some time for them to collate and most of the evidence I needed had been lost or deleted.
Cllr Gene Plews was amongst many Conservative Councillor who had been exchanging disrespectful e-mails about me.
I made a standards complaint because Mr Plews was the only councillor still serving (serving is probably the wrong word)
4 months later I receive a letter of apology from Geoff Pook the monitoring officer for his delay in notifying me of the outcome of the Standards Sub Committee, as expected the sub committee has decided not to take any further action. Once again showing the how unfair the system is, he has breached the same code as they claim I did which resulted in me being disqualified.
Decision
In accordance with Section 57A(2) of the Local Government Act 2000, as amended , the Standards Committee Assessment Sub-Committee resolved that no action should be taken on the allegation.
Reason for Decision
The Standards Committee Assessment Sub-Committee considered that whilst paragraph 3(1) of the Code (failing to treat others with respect) was engaged, the words in the e-mail which were subject of the complaint amounted to a comment in the nature of a political tit-for-tat. They did not cross the threshold to take them beyond trivial, especially in the context of being address to a limited, political audience. Furthermore the e-mail had been sent too long ago to warrant positive action.
If only the judge at my tribunal had taken the same view. He dealt with complaint of over a year old.
If the behaviour of these Conservative Councillors is now deemed political surely they should not be using Council computers and e-mail service for political attacks. I am sure the tax payer would not approve.
One of the emails exchanges considered political by the sub committee Cllr Plews referred to me as a idiot.
Its a pity the Chief Executive Helen Briggs, Conservatives Roger Begy and Terry Kings emails were deleted.
I would have like to have seen what insults they would have considered political.
I am not very experienced in the world of politics, but I now am pleased to know that it is acceptable to refer to Conservatives as Idiots.
