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Rochdale council is facing claims it sat on the results of a disciplinary inquiry into its chief executive over unwanted sexual advances towards a young female employee.
James Binks was suspended from his £200,000 a year job at the council on Monday after he was found to have inappropriately touched a junior colleague, who was a care leaver, in his previous role.
The Guardian has learned that council officers received the findings of an inquiry into his conduct more than five weeks ago but did not act until after the details were published by the Manchester Mill.
The disciplinary inquiry was launched by Manchester city council, where Binks was then assistant chief executive, last summer after complaints by young female employees about “sleazy” and “creepy” behaviour on a night out last November.
Binks took over as chief executive in Rochdale in April this year.
The investigation by the law firm Weightmans LLP upheld a complaint that Binks had “inappropriately touched and grinded” on a junior female employee at Manchester council in a city centre bar.
Manchester city council did not tell Rochdale council about the inquiry until 24 October, at least two months after it received the complaints.
Sara Rowbotham, the former deputy leader of Rochdale council whose role in bringing the grooming scandal to light was popularised by the BBC drama Three Girls, said: “There are serious questions about why Manchester city council failed to alert Rochdale that they were investigating the chief executive and why – having been given a redacted copy of the report – it sat with legal officers for a month without coming up with options.”
Councillors have complained that Rochdale was yet again being “dragged through the mud” over its handling of inappropriate behaviour towards young women, having been dogged for years by its response to the grooming scandal.
Elsie Blundell, the Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton North, welcomed Binks’s suspension and added: “The council must do everything to reassure women and girls that we have made progress in keeping them safe here, not slip into a default response of cover-up or ignoring any misconduct.”
The investigation also found that Paul Marshall, the deputy chief executive of Manchester city council and former director of children’s services, had made suggestive comments towards the same young woman.
A third executive, the HR director, Mark Bennett, was found to have witnessed Binks’s behaviour and reportedly intervened when other colleagues saw the young woman appearing uncomfortable.
However, he did not launch an investigation until about eight months later when a group of staff made a formal complaint.
It is understood that Marshall has since left Manchester city council and Bennett is expected to depart imminently, although it is not suggested that either has been sacked.
Rochdale council said it received a redacted version of the investigation findings on 24 October, more than a month before Binks was suspended.
A spokesperson said the document was reviewed by its legal department before it was shared with the council leader, Neil Emmott, on 27 November.
Emmott asked council officers that evening for advice on available options, the council said, with these presented to him on Sunday – the day after the Mill story was published.
Four sources told the Guardian that Emmott had been aware of the disciplinary complaints against Binks for at least a fortnight before he suspended him on Sunday. One said there had been “whisperings” about the incident in September but that Emmott and others were aware by mid-November.
Asked why the chief executive had not been suspended immediately, a council spokesperson said: “The leader could not act until he had seen the report and been presented with the options available to him.”
One councillor said Rochdale was being “dragged through the mud” and that local leaders needed to have a “less than zero tolerance policy” towards inappropriate behaviour “because it’s Rochdale”.
