Three complaints issued against unnamed Northumberland county councillors by senior officers are set to progress to a local hearing following a unanimous vote by the authority's standards committee.
It comes after the Max Caller report into governance at the council identified some "inappropriate use" of the conduct complaint process by officers against members and pointed to a "culture of mistrust" at the council.
The complaints in question had already been investigated, but due to the Caller report's findings an issue arose as to whether they should now progress to the hearing stage.
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A local hearing consists of a report presented by the investigating officer to the standards committee. The complainant may be asked to give evidence, and the member being investigated will have the chance to defend themselves.
The report did not give any details of the councillors or officers involved in the complaints, with one involving a fellow councillor as a co-complainant. Legal advice from Mark Heath of VWV solicitors, detailed in the report, advised members of the committee that they could use discretion not to refer a matter for a local hearing on the grounds it would not justify the time and cost involved.
However, at Thursday's meeting of the standards committee, councillors received further advice from Samantha Broadfoot QC, who disagreed with the previous advice.
The lawyer said: "My view is if you took this course and somebody challenged it, the council would lose at judicial review. Unless you know more about the complaints, my legal advice is that you cannot exercise discretion because you don't know enough about it.
"The Caller report specifically says there has been excessive and inappropriate use of the complaints procedure, but they are general reasons that apply across the board. The Caller report does not say that all complaints are a misuse."
The committee is made up of councillors from the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Independent Group. All members unanimously agreed to proceed to the next stage.
Coun Lynne Grimshaw said: "If we want to be seen as open and honest to the residents we represent, we have to move forward and get issues resolved. We need to decide today that it has got to move forward."
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