A Stirling councillor suspended for five months for bullying a senior official and disrespecting staff has apologised and vowed: “I will reflect on my behaviour”.
Stirling North Labour councillor Danny Gibson was found to have behaved disrespectfully towards council officers and representatives, breaching the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.
A conduct hearing was told he pressured officials, launched a personal attack on a senior officer and belittled staff in front of others at public and private meetings.
He was deputy leader of the council at the time the misconduct took place, in 2018 and 2019, serving in a joint SNP/Labour administration.
A further allegation that he called a senior female official a “boot” in a telephone call was not upheld.
The Standards Commission for Scotland issued a statement on Friday which said the breaches had the “potential to bring the council into disrepute” and that Cllr Gibson’s behaviour was “entirely inappropriate and unacceptable”.
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They branded his conduct bullying and said: “Stirling Councillor Danny Gibson was found to have breached the Councillors’ Code of Conduct for behaving disrespectfully towards council officers, and for having bullied a senior council officer.”
In a statement, Cllr Gibson said: “I wish to offer my sincere apologies to all of those affected by my conduct.
“I fully accept the judgement of the Standards Commission and I will reflect on my behaviours and make all necessary adjustments.
“I have written to Chief Executive Carol Beattie resigning from all my committee positions and external council appointments.
“Upon my return from suspension, I hope I can draw a line under this and continue to represent my constituents in Stirling North to the best of my ability.”
During the hearing, at Old Viewforth on Wednesday last week, it was heard that Cllr Gibson acted disrespectfully towards an applicant’s legal representative at a licensing board meeting.
At the hearing, Cllr Gibson was further found to have breached the provisions in the Code that require councillors to act fairly and being seen to act fairly.
Cllr Gibson was found by the panel to have become inappropriately involved in operational matters by attempting to pressure officers to take certain courses of action, in respect of issues relating to a development site and regarding the future of a community hall.
Witnesses told the hearing he belittled council staff, issued a “personal attack” and behaved disrespectfully on a number of occasions.
In relation to a planning application for flats in the Riverside area, it was stated that Cllr Gibson had began to copy then SNP councillor, now independent, Alasdair MacPherson into emails on the application to council officers and that in May of 2019 Cllr Gibson had requested officers to serve a “stop notice” – halting work at the site – due to concerns over HGV vehicles.
Cllr MacPherson said that he “distanced” himself from the emails as he felt Cllr Gibson was “getting in on legal matters” and needed to “stand back”.
Council officers later indicated to Cllr Gibson that serving a stop notice could leave the council open to a legal challenge and no notice was served.
It stated that at a pre-agenda meeting in October 2019, which was attended by council officers as well as councillors Gibson and MacPherson, that Cllr Gibson “belittled” council officers, including a senior manager.
Cllr MacPherson said that the meeting left the manager ”utterly demoralised” and that other council officers had been left “shaken” by the way he had been treated and he then raised the meeting with the chief executive.
Giving evidence, chief operating officer Brian Roberts said: “What started as a pre-agenda meeting on paper quickly became a personal attack.”
Mr Roberts added: “I felt it was personal. I felt I was being belittled in front of colleagues and my professionalism was being questioned.”
Cllr Gibson said that he was not pressuring officers but was in fact supporting them to use all of the delegated authority at their disposal.
Cllr Gibson added: “Brian (Roberts) is a fantastic officer and I have a huge amount of respect for him.
“I was genuinely sorry that those were his feelings on the matter.”
None of the witnesses were able to recount specific words used by Cllr Gibson towards officers.
Another complaint about Cllr Gibson’s conduct related to a licensing panel decision for a Shell petrol station on the A9 southbound at Balhaldie in October 2019.
At the licensing committee meeting, it was said that Cllr Gibson had treated Shell’s legal representative with disrespect.
Former SNP councillor Maureen Bennison, who chaired the committee at that time, said that Cllr Gibson began to speak over the applicant’s solicitor and was becoming “argumentative”.
Ms Bennison told the hearing: “I was mortified.
“It was a public meeting and I didn’t want the licensing board brought into disrepute.
“It was cringey.”
Cllr Gibson said that he was simply challenging the Shell legal representative on the application and he was the only councillor that voted against it.
Tory councillors Martin Earl and Douglas Dodds, told the hearing they do not recall Cllr Gibson crossing a line during the meeting, with Cllr Dodds indicating that, in his view, Cllr Gibson had simply been asking tough questions of the applicant’s legal representative.
Following the Standard’s Commission for Scotland panel’s decision, chair Ashleigh Dunn said: “In this case, the panel found that Cllr Gibson’s conduct, towards council officers and others, was entirely inappropriate and unacceptable.
“The panel considered that councillors should be aware of the inherent influence their role brings and should note that as elected politicians, they are in a position of power over council employees. The panel therefore emphasised the importance of the requirement for councillors to behave respectfully towards council officers, in order for officers to be able to undertake their tasks without being belittled, or subjected to bullying, unwarranted pressure or interference.”
Ms Dunn added: “The Standards Commission considers that such serious breaches of the Code have the potential to interfere with the effective operation of the council, to undermine the important relationship between council officers and elected members, and to bring the council into disrepute – as well as potentially exposing it to successful legal challenge. As such, the panel concluded that a five-month suspension was the appropriate sanction.”
A Stirling Council spokesperson this week told the Observer: “Stirling Council notes the decision of the Standards Commission for Scotland to suspend Councillor Danny Gibson for five months for serious breaches of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct, including for behaving disrespectfully towards council officers and for bullying a senior council officer.
“The information related to the hearing will be published in due course by the Standards Commission.”
Following the panel's decision, there have been calls for Cllr Gibson to be axed from the Stirling Labour Group.
Independent councillor for the Bannockburn ward, Alasdair MacPherson, raised the complaints against Councillor Gibson. He said the Labour Party “must draw the whip immediately from Gibson” since he was found to have bullied a senior officer.
The Stirling SNP council group leader, Cllr Scott Farmer meanwhile called for Labour to make clear “they will not tolerate bullies”.
He urged them to remove Cllr Gibson from the council administration and the Labour party, adding: “Failure to do so will send a terrible message, and only serve to further undermine the morale of council officers who deserve to work in an environment of mutual respect and safety.”
Cllr Farmer served as the council leader, with Cllr Gibson as deputy leader, under the SNP/Labour administration which ran the council at the time of the incidents.
Cllr Farmer added: “For months my group have raised concerns over a worrying deterioration in standards and behaviour by fellow councillors towards staff and officers, and I fear with the increased workload and pressures of only four Labour councillors trying to run the council administration, we may indeed be heading for further trouble.
“The people of Stirling deserve better.”
When the Observer pressed Cllr Farmer to detail what was done in relation to the accusations made against Cllr Gibson whilst in the joint administration, Cllr Farmer added: “As council leader of the previous administration, I offered the chief executive and senior officers my group’s full support in investigating allegations.
“Subsequent incidents and complaints by others led to the full external review by the Ethical Standards Commissioner, a hearing by the Standards Commission for Scotland.”
He added: “Mr Gibson should do the right thing for Stirling and resign.”
