News / Call to ban Cllr Robinson and Smith
THE PARTNER of former Shetland Islands Council chief executive, Dave Clark, has expressed her concern regarding the appointment of councillors Gary Robinson and Cecil Smith to the selection committee that has been tasked to find a replacement for Mr Clark.
In a letter to the council, Judith Miller said it was “wholly inappropriate” that Mr Robinson had been given such responsibilities while under investigation by the Standards Commission for an alleged breach of the code of conduct for councillors.
Mr Robinson is being investigated for remarks he made at the end of last year in relation to details of a loan repayment agreement between Shetland Islands Council and Judane (Shetland) Ltd, a company of which Ms Miller is a director.
Shetland News understands that Ms Miller was one of three local people who reported Mr Robinson to the Standards Commission.
“Should the complaint against Cllr Robinson be upheld, the whole credibility of any appointment (of a new chief executive) to which he was party would be jeopardised,” she wrote in her letter.
She added that she wanted councillor Cecil Smith “formally investigated” by the council after he had allegedly abused his position as chairman of the council’s licensing committee.
According to her, Mr Smith had contacted the owner of a Lerwick pub to probe an alleged rumour of Ms Miller having been banned from that pub.
She wrote: “Such behaviour by Cllr Smith appears at a minimum to be wholly inappropriate, and may be viewed as a gross abuse of position. I ask that this be formally investigated and the appropriate action being taken.
“It is my hope that this can be dealt with by SIC both promptly and discreetly in order to avoid the necessity of the matter being raised with the Ethical Standards Commission.”
The council’s chief legal officer Jan Riise said he could “not respond” to the question if and how the local authority would act on Ms Miller’s complaint. He said it would not be appropriate to discuss a complaint from a member of the public.
Last night, Mr Robinson said the content of the letter had never been discussed at the first meeting of the selection panel, on Thursday.
He declined to comment on the letter itself as it was “confidential correspondence”.
But he added: “In terms of my appointment to the selection committee; I have been elected unanimously by the council and unless the council tells me otherwise this is something I will see through.”
Mr Smith could not be contacted yesterday (Friday).
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