Mayor defends decision to ignore monitoring officer

The Mayor of Dudley has defended his decision to ignore the advice of the council’s top lawyer sparking fury among councillors.

The row broke out at a full meeting of Dudley Council on January 29 during a debate on a motion from the Labour opposition group about reinstating grit bins after a recent cold snap.

The ruling Conservative group proposed an alternative motion which the mayor, as chairperson, allowed despite the authority’s monitoring officer, Aftab Razzaq, who is director of governance and corporate services advising it should not be debated.

Mr Razzaq told councillors that, under standing orders, an amendment should be relevant to the original motion and aim only to remove and/or add words and not negate the motion.

He added: “The proposed amendment is effectively to remove all of the words. It is my advice that this isn’t within the scope of the procedure rules and certainly isn’t within the spirit of the interpretation I have just outlined.

“My advice was not to allow the amendment, the mayor considered that advice but it is ultimately a decision for the mayor.”

Dudley mayor, Conservative councillor Pete Lee, caused outrage on opposition benches by insisting the amendment went forward for a vote where it was ultimately accepted, knocking out the original Labour motion.

Labour leader, Cllr Adam Aston, told the mayor: “You have ignored the advice of the monitoring officer, to that end we have no choice to abstain in protest at the way this whole issue has been dealt with.”

Speaking after the ill-tempered meeting had finished, Cllr Lee said: “I think it was a wise decision, you don’t always have to listen to the monitoring officer.

“He doesn’t know all the facts and figures so I took that decision off my own bat, the mayor has the right to do that.”

When asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service if he would be able to give more detail about his decision, Cllr Lee said: “Not really, it’s just the decision I took that I felt was right at the time.”

Cllr Lee was briefed on the Conservative amendment an hour before the start of the council meeting and advised by Mr Razzaq not to allow it.

Cllr Lee said: “I get where he was coming from but that was my decision. It’s just getting through it and getting it sorted, that’s what I wanted to do.

“Sometimes we make mistakes but I don’t think I have tonight. Labour will say it was a political decision but they would – that’s their opinion.”

Cllr Pete Lowe, leader of The Black Country Party, has written to the mayor asking for clarification about why he allowed the amendment and demanding training for those ‘officiating’ at meetings.

Cllr Lowe said: “I hope that very few people watched the events as it was, in my view, an embarrassing spectacle.

“Most observers will have noted that at differing points the meeting was chaired by yourself, the chief executive and the monitoring officer.”

Cllr Lee seems less than pleased with councillors’ conduct during the meeting, he said: “It was a bit of a pantomime, it doesn’t do us any favours.”