Friday, 5th September, 2014
Pembrokeshire hot potatoes
As the summer draws to a close, my green-fingered readers will be only too aware how busy a time the lead up to harvest can be in an agricultural county like Pembrokeshire.
You may have noticed I’ve had a period of absence from the blogosphere. You could call it gardening leave – crops don’t pick themselves, you know! While it’s still too early for the pears, the apple trees bowed under the weight in the Chez W orchard, especially the cookers. And it’s amazing the sort of things you can learn if you spend some time in the garden when you wouldn’t normally.
For instance, how many of my readers knew you could store as much as twelve pounds of Victoria plums inside a no-longer-needed executive leather-bound briefcase?
And who knew that before it established its niche as an ostentatious, in-yer-face, sporting luxury automotive marque for cool dudes and yuppies, German motor company Porsche was actually an early innovator of farm tractors, and still had a model on the market as late as 1963?
Apart from my new-found gardening knowledge, not a lot has been happening since my last post, however it seems the council leader, Cllr. Jamie Adams, isn’t much more clued up on the strange situation the authority finds itself in either, and has been busy trying to get his head around things. He made an effort to bring councillors up to speed last week, and we’re told another update is in the pipeline, but everything seems to be couched in terms of sensitivity and uncertainty. And I still haven’t found the part of the council’s constitution which gave him as leader any power to delegate some of the absent chief executive’s duties.
You may be aware that on the 20th August a requisition signed by eighteen councillors was sent to the council chairman, Cllr. Tom Richards, to call an extraordinary meeting of council to debate motions of no confidence in the chief executive, Bryn Parry-Jones, and the leader, Cllr. Jamie Adams.
The signatories, in order, are: Cllrs. Jacob Williams, Mike Stoddart, Jonathan Preston, Vivien Stoddart, Tessa Hodgson, Michael Williams, Tony Brinsden, Phil Baker, Jonathan Nutting, Tony Wilcox, Guy Woodham, Gwilym Price, Paul Miller, Alison Lee, David Lloyd, Pat Davies, Bob Kilmister and Peter Stock.
Cllr. Richards duly agreed to hold the meeting and it was initially set for 10am on September 10th. Shortly afterwards I received notification out of the blue to tell me that this date had been rescheduled to the 19th due to a clash with a prior engagement some councillors had with the National Park. I don’t know about other councillors but the afternoon of the 10th would have been fine with me, and why the meeting had to be set back nine days is anybody’s guess, though the story goes that the calendar was otherwise fully booked.
Some conspiracy theorists have speculated that, by September 19th, Gloucestershire Constabulary may have decided there is no case to answer over fresh information which was brought to the police’s attention by Cllr. Paul Miller regarding the unlawful pension scheme, thus clearing one of the storm-clouds from above the chief executive’s head prior to the no confidence vote.
Whatever the case may be, it is quite possible that on the morning of the meeting – the 19th unless it changes again – us eighteen councillors will withdraw our motion of no confidence in the chief executive in order that a new proposal can be discussed, if, indeed, another extraordinary meeting hasn’t been held to debate it beforehand.
You may not know, but on Friday 22nd August, Cllr. Paul Miller submitted his own requisition to debate a separate item of business at an extraordinary meeting of the council. I’m not privy to the wording, but, in a nutshell, the aim of it is to set the wheels in motion for formal disciplinary investigation into the chief executive.
Chiefs are sacred cows in local government, and their positions are protected by statute in such a way that sackings and suspensions simply cannot be taken on a whim. Quite the opposite, in fact. Disciplinary action is a very laborious process involving firstly a politically-balanced panel of councillors to investigate an allegation to see if the officer has a case to answer. The panel must consist of at least three councillors, and if it decides the officer has a case to answer then it is handed to be investigated by a Designated Independent Person. The typical DIP sort is a distinguished judge, lawyer or quangocrat experienced in employment/dispute issues, who will investigate and produce a recommendation which is eventually presented to full council for action.
I understand during one iteration, Cllr. Miller’s motion to set the disciplinary wheels in motion cited numerous aspects of the chief executive’s conduct in office, including the allegation whose publication led to his ‘mutual’ decision with the leader to take a ‘period of absence’ three weeks ago today.
The allegation, if you’ve forgotten, is that Cllrs. Peter Morgan and Mark Edwards were subjected to a foul-mouthed tirade by the chief executive after they voted to support my own motion that we invited the chief executive (and another unnamed officer) to return the unlawful sums he received through the council’s unlawful pension payment opt-out scheme.
Cllr. Edwards described the chief executive’s language as ‘effing and blinding,’ and that he was ‘bouncing’ which is obviously a headline-grabbing aspect which raises questions over professional courtesy, however it also raises the prospect that the chief executive sought to influence elected members in relation to an extant matter in which he had a direct financial interest.
As part of the resolution on my proposal, council agreed that the chief executive’s response to the request to return the cash would be presented to the following council meeting, where the matter was to be revisited for another debate – and vote.
At the last check I made with County Hall, no confirmation could be given as to whether Cllr. Miller’s proposal would be added onto the agenda for the meeting already arranged for the 19th. I’m hopeful that it will be because the agenda hasn’t been published yet and the last day it can be is three days before the meeting. It does beg the question, though, why the powers that be are dragging their heels over tabling Cllr. Miller’s motion to set the disciplinary wheels in motion, when his request was lodged before the chairman decided to agree to call the meeting to debate the no confidence votes.
Cllr. Miller failed to receive a response from Cllr. Richards or his office within the week deadline. I understand the chairman is currently on holiday, so in the absence of a reply, in accordance with the council’s constitution, Cllr. Miller and his signatories wrote on Monday morning (1st September) to the authority’s head of legal services to arrange the meeting. Like the chairman, the head of legal services is also currently on leave, but unlike the chairman, he is unable to refuse the request for an extraordinary meeting, and has to ensure that the official notice for the meeting is published within five clear days.
With an extraordinary meeting already scheduled whose agenda has yet to be published, the seemingly obvious solution would be to add Cllr. Miller’s motion onto the agenda for the 19th September, though some councillors would prefer the matter to be held more urgently.
I’ll update as and when I hear more.
T.K. Q.C. D.I.P.
All this talk of extraordinary meetings is bound to greatly offend Milford Haven’s Cllr. Stan Hudson.
You may recall that, at the July full council meeting, Cllr. Hudson tabled the question:
“What is the cost to the Council Tax payers of Pembrokeshire with the calling of any extraordinary full Council meeting?”
The answer provided by leader Cllr. Jamie Adams was that the cost of extraordinary meetings depended on “a number of factors” such as “the content of the agenda and the number of Officers involved in the meeting and in preparation for the meeting.”
At that point, two extraordinary meetings had been held during 2014, and the minutes record that the leader:
“…advised Council that the cost of the Extraordinary Council Meetings held on 14 February 2014 and 1 May 2014 were £4,555 and £7,475 respectively.”
Cllr. Hudson had the right to a follow-up question but chose not to use it. I prescribe to the commonly held theory that his question – which was one of his only contributions I can recall – was an attempt to shame councillors who’ve exercised their collective rights to requisition extraordinary meetings for purposes that they feel are important.
If I was Cllr. Hudson I would have used my follow-up to question the leader’s calculations because, if you believe those two meetings cost the council £12,030, and that such a figure could be plucked out of the air, you’ll believe anything. But I’m sure Cllr. Adams read his answer in the full knowledge that, whatever he said, Cllr. Hudson would take it with a smile.
Cllr. Hudson could also have used the opportunity to question why, in arriving at his figures for the cost of the February 14th council meeting (yes, the ‘Valentine’s day massacre’ featuring the monitoring officer’s envelope ambush) the leader had clearly failed to include the eye-watering fees (over twenty grand between them) paid out for less than a full day’s work to Stuart Watson from a leading financial consultancy firm in the city, and to the eminent barrister Tim Kerr QC (rhymes with car) whose long list of specialities include ‘local government,’ ‘arbitration,’ and ’employment law.’
Indeed, our man Kerr’s website profile says: “…he has undertaken 10 confidential disciplinary investigations into alleged wrongdoing for local and central government bodies, often acting as a statutory “designated independent person” charged with investigating and reporting on alleged disciplinary violations.”
I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve seen the back of him or not.
Rearranging the deckchairs
Hotly anticipated in County Hall at the moment is an official decree from leader Jamie Adams of another cabinet reshuffle.
The theory goes that some of his party colleagues are a bit miffed with the current top-table lineup and would be unable to guarantee their support for him in the impending no confidence vote if he doesn’t make some swingeing cabinet changes beforehand.
Not only the membership of the cabinet is rumoured to be changing, but the structure of it too.
The most exciting aspect is nobody’s position is presumed safe. The leader’s cabinet change is expected to be a big one. Even deputy leaders Cllrs. Huw George and Rob Lewis have been touted as potential victims.
Mind, we mustn’t get carried away! A safer bet JW wouldn’t worry about placing is that Cllr. David Pugh will step down to spend more time with Ken Rowlands on the backbenches.
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I wonder, like you do, how on earth an extraordinary meeting can cost £4,500-£7,500.
As the staff attending were already being paid and the electricity bill was being paid, presumably we are only talking of the paper for printing the agendas and members’ travelling expenses?
Whilst you may have been allowing the grass to grow below your feet Jacob, Plaid Cymru has uncovered that Pembrokeshire Council’s procurement rules were not followed in respect of public funds to 29 Dimond Street, Pembroke Dock according to the Pembrokeshire Herald.
So even more mud to sling in the farmyard at BPJ, Farmer Adams and his Cabinet. I’m sure Jamie is working on the theory if the manure is heaped high enough Joe Public may be unable to see the true happenings beyond the Kremlin walls.
Labour and now Plaid Cymru have put their heads above the parapet so will the Lib Dems, Conservatives and KNS follow suit? What about the sheep leaving the pen?
Rumour abound among staff at the Kremlin that BPJ won’t be be back, either receiving a golden handshake from Farmer Adams or the double barrel shotgun treatment from Cllr. Miller’s EGM proposal.
2017 is still a long way off unfortunately.
Plaid Cymru have “uncovered” nothing. It’s a party-political press release. They wrote a letter and received a reply, that’s all.
And there are no longer any Lib Dems left on the council!
Cllr Miller, the Labour party candidate for the next Westminster election is making as much political capital out of this salary/pension fiasco as possible, when the issue should have been taken up by the Pembrokeshire MPs and AMs many months ago.
The question I would ask Cllr Miller and that other party leader Cllr Michael Williams is if they could please outline for the taxpaying public of Pembrokeshire how they propose to reduce the salary of any incoming CEO should Mr Parry-Jones depart.
The problem as I see it is that it is impossible to expect any new incoming CEO to work for a lower salary, when you have such high paid directors and managers.
I would also ask those county councillors who are not in the IPG party to keep this affair in the open and not attend any closed seminar at County Hall, should one be proposed.
At least they have the gumption to do that and move this yellow brick road closer to the end. I take nothing away from Old Grumpy, yourself or Cllr. Miller but surely it’s ammunition to the cause and wherever it arrives from is welcome?
I don’t deny that, Jon Boy, my involvement has been minimal in any case, however I’ve seen the Plaid Cymru press release and it’s shameless.
I’ve also seen the Herald’s website story that’s based on the same press release and I’m surprised the Herald published it as-is. It must’ve been a slow news day.
Let there be no doubt, the investigation into the grants fiasco in Pembroke Dock was the work of Old Grumpy and we all owe him a big thank you. Plaid Cymru and Labour are climbing aboard to take some of the credit. If I was a cynic, I might think a General Election is close.
Jamie is looking for a solution to his many problems. Why doesn’t he disband the much disliked IPPG and suggest forming a new cross party cabinet on merit and with representatives of all areas of Pembrokeshire, for approval by the County Council and with an undertaking that the chosen cabinet could propose a leader for approval of Council within 3 months of its formation.
The new cabinet could then get on with the task of a much needed overhaul of the Executive and the restoration of some degree of sanity to the administration of the Council.
If I could be allowed a little toot on my own trumpet, it was Old Grumpy who “uncovered” what was going on with these grants.
My first article on the subject appeared on my website on April 25 2013, so it has taken Plaid Cymru time to catch up.
However, to be fair, following my revelations Cllr Michael Williams (Plaid Cymru’s leader on PCC) asked that the matter be put on the agenda for the next meeting of the audit committee.
A report to the audit committee in September 2013 concluded:
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then until we have reached the point where “no evidence of maladministration” or any hint of “lack of competence by officers concerned” has been replaced by a whacking £144,000 repayment of grants to the Wales European Funding Office (WEFO) because of maladministration and incompetence, or worse.
And the best the Welsh Government can come up with is that the council has failed to abide by its “procurement rules”.
If you read my posts here and here, you might conclude that this is the understatement of the year.
And the cover-up goes on because the police, who received a dossier of evidence from PCC back in early April (including the information in the two blogposts above) are, five months later, still considering whether it would be appropriate to launch a criminal investigation.
I will be posting a full account of events since April 2013 on Pembrokeshire’s premier website tomorrow morning.
Toot all you like Michael. Deserved, welcomed and received with appreciation. If the Queen was looking for a place to hang a gong come New Year then she would need to look no further than yourself…now that would be a picture to adorn the front page of Pembrokeshire County Council newspaper.
Pembrokeshire seems to have become the nucleus for accelerated global change. I’ve been reflecting how language evolves with time and how the meanings of words change. Here are just a few draft illustrations of where I think we are and where we seem to be going.
Grant scheme – A means to be paid for work you don’t need to do.
Transparency – Obscuring/redacting information so it can’t be seen.
Regulation – A piece of legislation you only apply when it suits you.
Lay members – Prominent citizens usually totally ignored and bypassed if they don’t toe the ruling party line.
Regret – Phrase used reluctantly to signify you are annoyed that you have been caught out.
Herald – A rolled up publication to be used as an offensive weapon to keep committees in order.
Pension supplement – A tax efficient scheme to dispose of council tax for no beneficial return.
Election literature – A publication sometimes designed on council equipment but printed no one knows where.
Minute – A written record that never has any similarity to the events that occurred and is liable to be changed over time.
Concerned whistle blower – A person to be hounded and ridiculed.
EGM – A meeting where officers would charge thousands of pounds more for doing the exact same work they would have to carry out if it was on the agenda of a normal council meeting.
Council committee SRAs – A means to recycle up to 50% of unearned income back to the exchequer.
Tamping (adjective) – description of an enraged individual, often found in the vicinity of County Hall after listening to the council controlling group pontificators and their irrational explanations.
Iffy youth worker – A person to be trained in the art of misrepresentation prior to a short period of release into the community followed by a period of incarceration.
Equality – A new type of maths where taking away £5,000 from someone usually providing an essential service is the same as (equals) giving £50,000 to an individual who is not.
Light bulb – A new form of technology used to turn illuminations on and off.
Citizens – People to be patronised, fleeced, ignored and deceived by those in authority.
The point of the story is not the content of Plaid Cymru’s press release, but information that has flowed from it.
Not everyone knows the ins and outs of the grants scandal. The context for the main part of the article was dependent on reporting why the issue had come into the public domain again on the day it was written.
Mike’s role is properly and fully credited in the article, which I wrote and which appears in an edited form in the Herald itself.
Lesley Griffiths is remarkably poorly briefed. The Council has had to take a charge over two properties, as Mr McCosker had insufficient liquid assets available to pay £144k.
It is not clear whether £144k is the end of the matter, it is also not clear what priority the charges have over the properties, although a search at HMLR would probably dig that out.
Following from the above, did the Council take steps to establish whether sufficient net equity exists in the properties charged to discharge the liabilities once priority charges have been satisfied? Or are we in Bluestone territory, again?
The Council would not/did not say who negotiated with Mr McCosker or state the basis upon which they were instructed to do so. I could always have waited for it to be reported as a “good news” story at the EGM or somewhere else. And, thanks to Mike’s perspicacity, and discussions we had after he had read the story, this is unlikely to be the end of it.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see”. I still believe that ‘The Society with Secrets’ is the glue that binds things together, across party lines. Judiciary, ministers, police, reporters, council officials, T.V. newsmen etc etc.
PCC must have one of the most ineffectual Monitoring Officers in Laurence Harding. I have it on good authority that BPJ is definitely not coming back and I hope that the MO decides to go with him.
Galf, how can you say such things about the MO? Has he not played a part in downplaying some of the misdeeds associated with the authority?
He is one of the elite team of highly qualified hand picked and talented team players at the Kremlin that make this authority what it is. It is simply churlish of you to say he’s “ineffectual”.
So is BPJ back at work and his agreed leave of absence was just his summer hols?
Galf, he doesn’t have to come back. He is working from home!!
On Radio 2 I have just heard a County Council “CEO” refer to themselves as “Head of Paid Services”. At Monday evening’s meeting in Fishguard Paul Miller also referred to BPJ as HoPS. HoPS is far more descriptive of the actual duty and far less grandiose than CEO. I am looking forward to when we recruit a HoPS.
Following his meeting last night in Fishguard, reported today in the Western Telegraph, Cllr Miller stated:
“In a Local Authority there should be political leadership from which the Chief Executive and officers deliver the policies of the political groups. I don’t believe that’s what happens in Pembrokeshire at all. I think we’ve got a Chief Executive who runs the show just as he likes. It’s just been a series of disasters led by a single individual who appears to be completely untouchable and the only way we can make any difference is if we come together in big enough numbers and say something’s got to be done.”
I have for a long time been beating the drum for Pembrokeshire to be controlled by a leading political heavyweight and not the current incumbents from the farmyard. Cllr Miller may well be right in pushing for change from the bottom up but surely those sheep in the pens of the IPPG have got to make a stand at the forthcoming EGM.
BPJ, Farmer Adams and his Cabinet cronies have steered this Council’s ship onto the rocks. No political manoeuvring from so called independent groups can in anyway hold steady the wheel to get us to 2017.
First step is a mutiny from within the IPPG cabins, with the removal of the IPPG controlling crew and its Captain, Farmer Adams. With a new crew under a new Captain there may well be some plank walking, some big splashes and some lifeboats launched, but hopefully a safe and steady bearing for us until 2017.
Have the Big 4 heavyweight Political parties got what it takes to lead? I hope so.
Best place for hops is in beer. I hope BPJ is not replaced especially bearing in mind the suggested merger of authorities.