Cleared councillor comments on complaint
A SHETLAND councillor who has been cleared of breaching the code of conduct by the Standards Commission has warned about the difficulties associated with public life in the isles.
Shetland Central member Mark Burgess was the subject of an anonymous complaint regarding his employment as an IT lecturer at local authority-run Shetland College, following his election as a councillor in May last year.
When Burgess was elected as a councillor he resigned as a college employee and became a self employed contractor so he could help his students prepare for their exams.
The complainer claimed that Burgess had “artificially” changed his employment contract, while continuing to teach “the same subjects to the same classes, using the same desk and all other college facilities that he had used prior to his election as a Shetland Islands councillor”.
Public standards commissioner Stuart Allan said he was unable to rule on the issue as it was not covered by the councillors’ code of conduct, instead being a matter for the Local Government (Scotland) Act.
However Burgess said he no longer had a contract of employment, and the issue had been thoroughly examined by both the SIC and the college prior to his election and been considered to be “legal, acceptable and transparent”.
He added that councillors below the age of retirement needed an outside income to top up their council wage, and as a sole contractor it was difficult to avoid doing some work for the authority.
He also pointed out that being a councillor left you open to attack, often from those who shouted loudest about the need for folk to stand up and be counted.
Burgess explained that he had been teaching IT to college students one day a week on a temporary contract that had been temporarily extended.
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Had he failed to carry on teaching his class they would have been left in the lurch in the run up to exams, he said.
“To ensure continuity for my students toward exam time after the election it was agreed that, while I was legally required to cease employment and all employee privileges with the college, being self-employed I could continue to teach my course specialities and bill them accordingly.
“That, in itself, is not an unusual situation.
“The serious dilemma faced by us all was the possibility that a whole year group may not have continued had I ceased all services to the college.”
He said any councillor below pensionable age needed outside employment as the income from public life was not high “by any standard”. Burgess receives £16,234 a year as a councillor without any committee chair.
“As a contractor in Shetland that means it is quite likely to involve the SIC at some point,” he said.
“Another paradox of local public life is that it is sometimes those who shout loudest about the need to stand up and be counted or make a difference are, at times, also those who seek to attack anyone who does.
“It is not an easy role, and one in which any attempt to do the best by all concerned is open to being construed as otherwise.”
The public standards commissioner’s report can be found here.
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