Monitoring officer was undermined and bullied by former council leader, investigation finds

South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council's former leader Iain Malcolm bullied and undermined the council's monitoring officer and its Corporate Director, Business and Resources (s151 officer) in breach of the council's Code of Conduct, an external investigator has said.

Olwen Brown, an external investigator at Anthony Collins Solicitors, was called in after the local authority's interim monitoring officer, Nicola Robason and its section 151 officer, Stuart Reid, complained that Malcolm exhibited controlling and bullying behaviour.

Brown's report was discussed at a Standards Committee meeting on Wednesday (20 March), which concluded Malcolm had breached the code of conduct by failing to treat the complainants with respect and through conduct that amounted to bullying.

The committee also found breaches relating to attempts to influence the actions of statutory officers and by bringing both the council and the office of councillor into disrepute.

The complainants alleged that statutory officers at the council were unable to fulfil their statutory duties because of the actions and behaviours of the then-council leader.

Their complaint went on to allege that Malcolm had been aggressive, angry and intimidating in a conference call on 6 July 2020 with Reid and Robason and had threatened their jobs during the call.

"Malcolm made a number of blatant and deliberate threats regarding job security towards the s.151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer designed to both intimidate and improperly influence the actions and responsibilities of the s.151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer," the complaint read.  

It mentioned other examples of Malcolm's behaviour, including a meeting in which he was "aggressive and told the Monitoring Officer he would be 'taking this forward with his group after the Covid crisis'.

"He [Malcolm] then appeared to throw his phone down, having declared he would not speak to the Monitoring Officer further," the complaint read. Malcolm denied throwing the phone down in an interview with the investigator.

Robason, who was reportedly "quite emotional and tearful" while recounting the incidents in an interview with the investigator, also reported that he sent emails to her with her name in capital letters.

She gave the following example to the investigator: "In an email of 12 March 2020 Cllr Malcolm writes 'LEP review proposal isn't right NICOLA'."

Malcolm, who resigned from the council in 2020, categorically denied any bullying or harassing behaviour towards Robason or Reid in a statement on the investigation.

He said the complainants had frequently met him in his office privately to provide briefings and they had continued to attend conference call meetings without there being any concerns.

The investigator, Olwen Brown, concluded that there was evidence to justify a finding that Malcolm's behaviour towards Robason and Reid amounted to a breach of grounds 1 and 2 of the Councils Code of Conduct.

Ground 1 requires that councillors "treat others, including Council Officers, with respect and decency".

Ground 2 meanwhile states: "You must not bully any person, and you must not intimidate or improperly influence, or attempt to intimidate or improperly influence, any person who is involved in any complaint about any alleged breach of this Code of Conduct."

Brown said: "It seems to me that the evidence relating to the telephone call of 6 July is capable of falling within the definition of bullying as contained with the Council's Code of Conduct.

"I believe the evidence of Ms Robason and Mr Reid about this call over the evidence of Cllr Malcolm. It seems to me that his behaviour would have been humiliating and would have been offensive. I also believe that by his actions he was undermining Ms Robason in relation to her role as Monitoring Officer."

She added: "Cllr Malcolm is a very experienced member and a very experienced Council Leader, and I cannot accept that he did not know what he was doing and did not know the effect his behaviour was likely to be having on the officers; both in relation to the specific instances mentioned and also the climate within the council."

She did, however, note that Malcolm was experiencing "extreme" abuse on social media, much of it from another councillor.

Brown found he "clearly" felt that Robason was not doing all that she could to protect members against the abuse and that this was a source of significant frustration for Malcolm.

Ultimately, Brown said: "Cllr Malcolm is clearly a very powerful local politician of longstanding, in an authority which is very heavily dominated by his group; who as leader demands high standards - and there is nothing wrong with that in itself.

"However, when his behaviour crosses the line over into bullying officers in a way that creates the atmosphere within the council described in the evidence of the complainants and Steven Gerrard [another interim monitoring officer], it is unacceptable, and it justifies a complaint."

Representations made on Malcolm's behalf to the Standards Committee on Wednesday (see report 4), Malcolm accused the investigation of involving an "unfair process" due to only giving a two-week notice for the committee meeting, 28 months after the council originally listed the matter before the committee.

In addition, he complained of wrongful extension of the parameters of the investigation after the investigator included accusations concerning Malcolm's usage of a council credit card usage in the report.

He also complained about how Robason and Reid publicly sent the complaint to the Labour Party rather than sending it to the deputy monitoring officer marked as private and confidential. The representations said Malcolm had faced "trial by media" after the complaint was made public.

The news comes a week on from an audit revealing that Malcolm had used his council credit card for personal purchases and has reimbursed the council with £19,000.

A meeting of South Tyneside’s audit committee was told that Malcolm’s use of the card was referred in 2020 to Northumbria Police, who this month told the council there was insufficient evidence to proceed meaning information could be released.

Adam Carey