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It doesn’t say much for local political participation, democracy and dare I say it *shhh* co-operation, when the @lambeth_council Standards Committee decides to meet in secrecy to decide the fate of council leader @cllrstevereed.

No worries - at least the outcome of the committee meeting has been disclosed: a Full Conduct Hearing is required to rule if the Leader of both @lambeth_council and @LambethLabour, has breached the Council Code of Conduct.

As for the specific charges?

Ahh…

*shhh* once again.

With such a closed-door approach to local democracy, it is no wonder that Lambeth locals view activities related to the local authority with such cynicism. What is known is that the appearance of the council Leader in front of a Full Conduct Hearing relates back to the decision of (then) Councillor Betty Evans-Jacas to defect from @LambethLabour to the Tories back in October of 2009.

Reed responded at the time with an astonishing personal attack published on his own blog. Allegations were made about financial demands that Reed believes Evans-Jacas made on the local Labour party.

It is no surprise that these allegations form the bulk of the charges now stacked up against Reed. With no official word coming from the corridors of power at Lambeth Town Hall, it is a lame state of affairs when Lambeth locals are excluded from observing the democratic process which may lead to the impeachment of their council Leader.

Cut the crap etc, and it seems that two charges have been levelled at @cllrstevereed:

(i) Lambeth Council’s Standards Committee believes that a breach of the Council’s Code of Conduct was made when Reed published on his blog financial information relating to Evans-Jacas.

The allegation made in the blog post is that Evans-Jacas asked for more money in order to remain within the local Labour party. This smear from the Leader of the local council failed to mention the wider picture, and in particular, the problems that the then Labour councillor was having in paying her own Council Tax.

This dates back to 2006 and a long-standing illness suffered by Evans-Jacas. She was unable to work for a long period of time, and personally approached the @LambethLabour Chief Whip to try and talk through her difficulties.

It was decided in discussions with council officers that the Council Tax money would be deducted at source from the civic allowance that Evans-Jacas was entitled to.

(ii) The second charge made against Reed by the Standards Committee is the failure to treat a fellow Member with due respect. This is of course more of an arbitrary allegation to defend, and to be fair, a charge that a great majority of local councillors could be made to answer for following their bun fights during Full Council meetings.

If found guilty, the Leader of @lambeth_council could be suspended from office for a period of three months. Timing is all crucial here, with the planned #lambethcoop consultation from the non-citizen Citizen’s Commission due to report back to cabinet during this period.

#lambethcoop is very much the personal PR push by @cllrstevereed and his involvement is central to the success of the project. Likewise the proposal to place the permanent temporary Streatham ice pad at Pope’s Road Car Park is a policy that has been led from top down.

An apology at the time from @cllrstevereed may have appeased the Lambeth Tories, and probably would have prevented this messy busy being played out in (semi) private. Saying sorry (and deleting the highly offensive tweet aimed at Evans-Jacas) seems to have got @cllr_robbins out of a sticky situation.

It is perhaps ironic that all of this unfortunate political fallout is being played out just as the suspension of another @LambethLabour councillor is about to come to a close. Having been forced to sit on the Lambeth naughty step, many political activists locally will be eagerly awaiting the next political move of Labour Independent Labour Councillor Abrams of Vassall ward.

Reed personally led the charge against Councillor Abrams at a London wide disciplinary hearing of the Labour party. With no evidence still yet to appear to support the allegation by Reed that Abrams was leaking information, it will be fascinating to see how the Full Conduct Hearing operates, when the allegations made against Reed were self-published on his very own blog for all to see.