‘Saucy’ Christmas gift lands councillor in pickle
Criticism of condiment‘joke’
give it to her as a present.
“He was trying to be funny but it didn’t work and it wasn’t funny. He was attempting a joke but apologises for any offence caused.”
He said he had not received a complaint about the incident from Ms Beattie.
Councillor McDonald, first elected to the council in May, 2017, was contacted by the Observer but declined to add to the comments made by Councillor Benny.
However, SNP councillor for Stirling North Susan McGill said: “This is not the sort of behaviour any woman should have to face, never mind at her place of work. For the Tories to attempt to brush this off with an apology is simply not good enough and is not conducive to the type of society we are trying to build, where there is zero tolerance of sexual harassment.
“People rightly expect elected representatives to behave respectfully. Councillor McDonald’s behaviour has fallen seriously short of what is acceptable conduct for any person, never mind an elected councillor.”
Ms Beattie took over as interim chief executive in September following the resignation of chief executive by Stewart Carruth, She has previously served as depute chief executive.
A council spokesman said they did not comment on matters involving individual staff members but added: “As an organisation, we operate a zero-tolerance approach to inappropriate behaviour from any member of staff, or elected representative. We condemn any such behaviour within the workplace and encourage all our employees to report these to their line manager, HR or their trade union representative.”
Councillor McDonald is the third member of Tories’ 2017 Stirling Council intake to face accusations of inappropriate conduct.
Dunblane and Bridge of Allan councillor Alastair Majury and Forth and Endrick representative Robert Davies were suspended over remarks made on social media. Councillor Majury later apologised and in autumn 2017 was allowed back into the Tory fold. Councillor Davies sits as an independent.