Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with her complaint about the conduct of a councillor. This is because it is unlikely the Ombudsman will find fault by the Council and he cannot achieve the outcome Ms X wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, complains about how the Council dealt with her complaint about the conduct of a councillor.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Ms X said in her complaint.

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What I found

5. Ms X complained to the Council that in March 2018 a Council member posted defamatory allegations about her professional conduct on his social media page. Ms X complains that the postings caused damage to her reputation and distress and embarrassment to her and her family.
6. Ms X wants the Council member to be reprimanded or removed from post.
7. The Council considered Ms X’s complaint but decided not to formally investigate. It concluded that the Council member was acting in a private capacity, using his own social media page, not in an official capacity. The Council therefore decided that the code of conduct did not apply and an investigation was not warranted.

Analysis

8. The Council considered Ms X’s complaint and reached a decision it is entitled to reach. There is no indication that there was fault in the way the Council made this decision and so we cannot question the merits of it.
9. We cannot play any role in discipline matters and so we cannot achieve the outcome Ms X seeks.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint as it is unlikely we will find fault by the Council. In the absence of fault, we cannot question its decision not to investigate Ms X’s complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman