It’s a big day for Councillor Roger Mazillius tomorrow. The outcome of an investigation into his behaviour is being held at County Hall at 10:30am tomorrow morning.
Cllr Roger Mazillius, member of the Isle of Wight council cabinet, has been under investigation following allegations that he both insulted and didn’t treat with respect a member of the public and a councillor – and in addition that he attempted to bully and intimidate the same councillor.
As well as this, the member of the public alleged Cllr Mazillius’ behaviour was unbecoming of a representative of Island people – in other words, that he brought his office as councillor or the Isle of Wight Council into disrepute.
The source: An email sent by Cllr Mazillius
All of this was connected to an email Cllr Mazillius sent in response to the member of public asking about the cost and creation of a position for Cllr Mazillus in the Cabinet last year.
A report was compiled by one of the council’s investigating officer after examining the evidence.
“Cllr Mazillius brought his office into disrepute”
The officer found that the member of the public was “not treated with respect” and that “Cllr Mazillius brought his office into disrepute”. They didn’t find any of the allegations against the councillor to standup.
This report was forwarded to a council sub-committee who carried out a hearing on 28 July, 2011.
That committee found the “potential breach of the Code of Conduct”, explicitly, “1) You must treat others with respect and 2) You must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office or authority into disrepute.”
Attempt to exclude public and press
The next stage is a hearing tomorrow, but there may be a problem for us reporting it, or indeed you finding out about it.
For an unexplained reason, the item on the agenda before the examination of Cllr Mazillius’ actions is marked “Exclusion of Public and Press.”
To consider passing a resolution that, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business, namely Agenda item number 4, on the grounds that there is likely to be disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 7C of Schedule 12A of the Act and in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
What is being protected?
It’s unclear what of this would need protecting from the press and public.
To us, it appears that the only thing to be protected is the embarrassment of Cllr Mazillus, as surely being found guilty of this kind of action would be embarrassing.
That’s no reason to hold the meeting in secret is it?
UPDATE 29.Sept. 7:43: It was explained to us yesterday that the agenda items for exclusions are standard for this committee (we haven’t had much experience of them) – implemented when private financial matters are to be discussed. In yesterday’s hearing, it was not used, so we were able to report from the meeting, as our Tweet showed.
Agenda for tomorrow’s meeting
