Controversy has surrounded the complaints procedure at the council since councillors remain anonymous before, during and after complaints are either upheld or dismissed, which some councillors argue allow enables some to escape sanctions.
Janie Berry, director of law and governance and monitoring officer for BCP Council, highlighted how some councils, including Cornwall Council, hold councillors to account by naming each subject councillor regardless of whether a complaint is upheld or not.
Committee members agreed they were in favour of a “tweaks” in the procedure which would name councillors whose complaints were upheld.
Cllr Patterson-West said: “I’m certainly in favour in naming people where the complaint has been upheld.”
She added there is “massive frustration” among the committee as she argued previous sanctions are often not complied with but said naming upheld complaints “might just take some of the power away”.
Cllr Gavin Wright said he was in favour of changes but argued there should be an “innocent until proven guilty” system where councillors would only be named if the complaint is upheld.
“I would not be in favour of just naming everybody,” he added.
Cllr Chris Rigby argued in favour of making “tweaks”, saying if there was a way to reduce the risk of elected members breaking the code of conduct then it is “probably a good thing to do”.
Chair Cllr Ricketts recommended the committee undertake a review of the procedure to be discussed at the next standards committee meeting which passed unanimously.
The meeting also saw the re-election of Chair Cllr Ricketts and Vice Chair Adrian Chapmanlaw.
The complaint stemmed from a video Cllr Chapmanlaw posted on social media of illegal parking outside a school which received a lot of criticism from residents as parents and children could be seen in the video.
No investigation was conducted into the complaint because “no evidence was found that the Liberal Democrat was acting as a councillor at the time of filming and posting online” but Cllr Chapmanlaw said he “regrets alarm” caused.