Moray Council says it can neither “confirm nor deny” whether any complaints were made about the conduct of new convener Marc Macrae.
However, the Ethical Standards Commissioner’s office has stated they received one.
We submitted Freedom of Information requests to the local authority and the commissioner’s office.
We asked if there had been any complaints made about the behaviour of the Conservative councillor for Fochabers Lhanbryde between May 2017 and spring this year.
The requests were made after Frank Brown, a former Tory councillor for Elgin North and colleague of Mr Macrae, said he was not a fit and proper person to hold the role of civic head of the local authority following complaints about his conduct.
Mr Brown raised his concerns with the party locally.
Not in the public interest
In a statement, Mr Macrae spoke of one incident stating he was not proud of his actions. He had immediately apologised.
The convener will face a vote of no confidence at a meeting of the full council in August.
In their response to the FoI, the local authority said: “In accordance with Section 18 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, we neither confirm nor deny if such information is held.”
The council felt “if it were held” the information may be exempt under sections forbidding personal information being released and that it would prejudice effective conduct of public affairs.
However in their reply the ethical standards office said: “I can confirm that we received one complaint about Cllr Macrae.”
They said this was “dismissed at an early stage”.
As well as the personal information exemption, the ethical standards office felt if the information was released it could prejudice investigations into future complaints. This is because people would be less likely to come forward if they thought their concerns could be made public.
Neither authority believes it is in the public interest to release the information.
The ethical standards commissioner’s office investigates complaints about the behaviour of councillors, MSPs, board members of public bodies and lobbyists.
It encourages fairness, good conduct and transparency in public life.
Mr Macrae became civic head of the council in May, and is part of a minority Conservative administration.
‘Dismissed at an early stage’
Ten councillors, eight SNP and two independents, have put their names to a motion of no confidence in the convener.
There are 26 seats on Moray Council with the Conservatives forming the largest group with 11 councillors.
The SNP have eight elected members, there are three Labour, two independents, one Green and one Liberal Democrat.
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