Glasgow Councillors and Public Standards
I think there must be a strong case for reporting the SNP's Graham Campbell to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life.
Not only has Cllr Campbell lied at an official hustings over his attendance at council meeting, he goes on to criticise the person who raised the issue and put him on the spot.
Read the full story in the link below to the Glasgow Times.
Glasgow SNP councillor blames 'meetings clashing' for poor attendance when no clashes existed.
By Stewart Patterson - Glasgow Times
SNP councillor has claimed his “inadequate” attendance at council meetings was due to times clashing with other committees he sat on, despite no clashes existing.
Graham Campbell, councillor for Springburn/ Robroyston, was challenged about his attendance, at a hustings in the ward before he was re-elected last week.
Last year the Glasgow Times had reported on the attendance rates of all 85 councillors, for the year 2020.
READ MORE: Low turnout sees councillors in Glasgow elected with backing of just 7 percent of electorate
Mr Campbell was one of the lowest with a rate of 50 %, attending 10 out of 20 meetings, 84th out of 85 councillors for attendance.
The report was part of a series where we revealed Tory councillor, Tony Curtis and Labour councillor, Jim Coleman were disqualified as councillors for non-attendance.
We also revealed how independent councillor, Russell Robertson, skipped a full council meeting for a midweek boozy break in Edinburgh with his partner.
And we revealed how Labour councillor, Hanif Raja, logged into one meeting remotely from Sri Lanka.
READ MORE: Thousands of votes did not count at the election in Glasgow last week
Mr Campbell was asked about this attendance by a questioner at the hustings, which was recorded and posted on social media and seen by the Glasgow Times.
In an attempt to explain, he said the article was “wrong” and then said he doesn’t get paid enough for all the committee work he is required to do.
Mr Campbell said at the hustings: “There was a sort of article about this, two years ago where an article in the Evening Times claimed my attendance record was inadequate. It’s not correct.
“First of all, for quite a large part of the first two years I was in office, the Licensing Committee, which meets three times a week, the one that’s most active, was clashing with the other committees I sat on.
“So, I would have to miss education or environment to attend. So, I gave my apologies to those, so my absence should not have been recorded as absences because I gave my apologies.
“So, they got that wrong. They didn’t take into account my attendance at SPT or the River Trust, all the other bodies I represent the council on, which is quite a lot.
“The committee work of the council is so vast, it nowhere near compensates for, the money you get paid.”
On investigation, his reasons contained a number of inaccuracies.
The Licensing Committee met a maximum of twice a week.
The Glasgow Times checked Mr Campbell’s committee membership and he was not on the licensing committee in 2020 and the committees he did sit on that year did not clash with one another.
For the early part of the term, 2017 to 2019, he was on the Licensing, Education and Environment committees.
However, again, meetings did not clash, and he was absent from several licensing committee meetings, which he claimed to be prioritising.
A snapshot of our record checking, from September 2017 to December 2017, found that councillor Campbell was not present for 11 licensing meetings out of 18: three out of five in September, four out of four in October, three out of six in November and one out of three in December. None of the meetings clashed with any other he was required at.
Sources said that council committee clerks endeavour to ensure there are no clashes.
Councillor Campbell did not respond to our specific question about meetings not clashing, instead, he said that the person who asked the question had come “especially from across town to noise me up”. He said he reported the man to the police and that he had tried to “hijack the hustings” and other candidates and volunteers condemned his “hostile behaviour”.
He added the man was “thrown out” after filming Mr Campbell’s response and he said the man “left saying ‘I got what I came for’ presumably meaning what he needed to put online.”
