Councillor sanctioned for row with chief executive

A Torbay Council member has been ordered to make an "unequivocal apology" and carry out training for breaching the code of conduct.

Councillor Katya Maddison said "shame on you" to the council's chief executive after a heated meeting in May 2024 and later wrote on Facebook that the council was "a sick institution".

The council's standards committee went against an independent investigation commissioned by the council and said Maddison's words to chief executive Anne-Marie Bond amounted to "personal abuse".

After the eight-hour hearing on Tuesday, Maddison, Independent member for Shiphay, said she would not be making an apology and would be speaking with her lawyer regarding next steps.

Independent investigator Melvin Kenyon was hired by the council to provide a 42-page report into the allegations.

He said Maddison brought the council into disrepute and failed to treat officers with courtesy and respect when she made the comment on Facebook.

However he found the comment made in person was not abusive, threatening or confrontational and did not breach the council's code of conduct.

Stuart Benson, representing Maddison, said: "A well-paid chief executive can be treated more robustly - we are not dealing with a shrinking violet."

Ms Bond, who is paid more than £150,000 a year as chief executive, brought the complaint against Maddison.

She said Maddison had been "disrespectful" to her in person, and later on Facebook to her, the council's governance support team and the senior leadership team as well as to the council itself.

The standards committee, chaired by Jacqueline Thomas, Conservative, decided the comment in person was made in an "assertive and confrontational manner".

It said Maddison had suggested on Facebook council governance was not impartial and said that suggestion was "abusive".

The committee said Maddison had failed to follow the council's code of conduct which says councillors must treat other members with respect, must not bully any colleagues and must not bring the council into disrepute.

Maddison was told to make an apology to full council at its next meeting on 27 February and to apologise to the senior leadership team and Ms Bond.

The incident followed a row in the council chamber over the selection of the following year's civic mayor.

An unnamed Independent Person brought in by the council to monitor the complaint process, said in watching 12 months of meetings they witnessed behaviour of "tit-for-tat, one upmanship, constant battle for gaining the upper hand".

The Independent Person said there had been a "constant power struggle" between "two factions that clearly can't stand each other".

Relationships within the council had deteriorated to the point where a mediation service was brought in last July.

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