The leader of Sandwell Council has been cleared of allegations that he conducted a social media ‘smear campaign’ against a fellow councillor.
The claims by former deputy leader of the council, Mahboob Hussain, against Steve Eling were revealed as members of the Ethical Standards and Member Development Committee get set to meet on Friday.
The committee will hear the findings of separate investigations into five former and current councillors.
In October 2017, Mr Hussain alleged the council leader had leaked information to a local blog site as part of a smear campaign against him, saying: “This involves him disclosing information about confidential council business and personal matters about me and my family for political gain and to pursue a vendetta against me.”
At the time, Mr Hussain was himself being investigated over allegations over the sale of council owned toilets blocks and the waiver of parking tickets issued to members of his family.
He has consistently denied any wrongdoing and claimed he was a victim of a politically motivated campaign, and in May this year he stood down as a councillor.
His allegation also claimed Cllr Eling had disclosed confidential information about him during a Labour Party internal investigation.
Mr Hussain's claims centred on a meeting Cllr Eling and another former councillor, Richard Marshall, had with the author of a local blog site in 2016.
Following the meeting Cllr Marshall passed a series of messages which included abusive and derogatory remarks about Cllr Hussian and also the council’s then Assistant Chief Executive, Melanie Dudley, to the blog site.
Mr Hussian alleged the information on himself was leaked with the knowledge of the council leader.
But the investigation found that in the absence of any evidence beyond Mr Hussian’s claims, Cllr Eling had not breached the council’s code of conduct for elected members.
Cllr Eling, responding to the investigation’s findings, said: “The complaints against me have been fuelled mainly by inaccurate posts on social media which have been demonstrated as untrue in a legal statement made by a social media blogger as part of the investigation.
"This misconceived complaint has been thoroughly examined by an independent investigator who concluded I had not breached the Members’ Code of Conduct.”
Fridays’ meeting will also hear of a separate investigation into Cllr Marshall which concludes he failed to treat Mr Hussian and others with respect and therefore breached the code of conduct and his actions was likely to bring the authority into disrepute.
A further report into complaints brought by Melanie Dudley against Cllr Marshall also found he had not treated her with respect and his conduct was also likely to bring the authority in to disrepute.
Following the allegations, Cllr Marshall stood down from the council at May’s election.
Members of the Friday’s Standards committee will also look into reports into allegations against Cllrs Ian Jones and Olwen Jones.
In total, the meeting will discuss seven investigations which are part of a series of historical claims of wrongdoing and corruption within the authority.
Earlier this year, council members called for greater powers to discipline councillors found to have acted improperly.
Surjit Tour, the council’s monitoring officer, said: “This underlines the council’s ongoing commitment to openness and transparency when dealing with allegations of improper conduct.
“It is essential that our residents have absolute confidence in how seriously we take all allegations and the effectiveness in which they are dealt with.
“We have lobbied the Government, through the consultation led by the committee on standards in public life, for stronger powers to deal with elected members who abuse their position and are fully committed to promoting the highest standards of conduct among all elected councillors and co-opted members.”
