We understand that there is a major row going on at Argyll and Bute Council because the leadership conducted a press briefing on the budget proposals before opposition councilors – elected members – had even been informed of the detail.
This is quite wrong.
And For Argyll is not guilty by association. They don’t speak to us so we had nothing do with the briefing.
We have the press briefing anyway form other sources and we knew – and have told you – the key issues before the briefing even took place.
We’ll decode the spin later.
The major issue is the democratic deficit. Each councillor is elected to serve the people of Argyll and Bute. They are equally responsible for that representative function. The manipulation of membership of the so-called ‘Executive’ is already undemocratic but to brief the press before the elected members – and on so crucial a matter - is a fully Blairite trick.
We feel that for Chief Executive Sally Loudon to be part of this, as she was, is a breach of the Code of Conduct which she is obliged to observe.
This action discriminates against elected members and against some elected members rather than others.
She has either initiated or been complicit in this act of discriminatin and it is a matter which we advise those elected members affected to pursue formally through the appropriate authorities.
It was known from the start of her appointment that Mrs Loudon was very inexperienced for a role of such responsibility.
Her conduct and performance over the school closure proposals was also discriminatory in improperly excluding from key strategy development meetings the then Education Spokesperson, Councillor Strong.
This current discriminatory action suggests that the Chief Executive is spinning out of control.
That’s typical Jo (Comms Manager)for you – not surprised at all
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Indeed – typical of the comms manager to do her job right and brief the press on an important issue so they can keep the public informed.
Everyone would be quick to critisise if there hadn’t been a press briefing, especially as a favourite complaint is no-one knows what’s going on. Can’t moan when people are told the situation.
Sounds like sour grapes from newsroom as they’re weren’t invited.
I have it on very good authority from various sources close to the council, and I’ve heard from several Kilmory loose-lips that councillors received their information before the press, and not one of them mentioned any ‘fury’. Could it be because For Argyll has it wrong again?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Oh, and if For Argyll had their briefing from another source BEFORE the press briefing doesn’t that suggest the information was somehow available BEFORE the press were told? Just a thought…
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
For Trudie Wright: As is clear from what we reported, For Argyll got the budget proposals early – and in fact from several sources. We received no briefing.
The press briefing, with the Head of Strategic Finance present, is not centrally about handing over the budget papers to newspaper reps – although that happens. It is about interpretation – relatively few people outside the worlds of finance and business can ‘read’ accounts and financial papers. The press briefing is also about taking questions.
Elected councillors are no different from the rest of us – some of them can ‘read’ financial documents and the majority are less than confidently secure in doing so. The informed few have searching questions to ask. This sort of interrogation is very necessary in arriving at a paint where budget proposals are secure. You can be sure that few searching questions will be asked of such papers by those inside the ruling coalition – ‘applecart’, ‘upset’, ‘don’t want to’… Get it?
Elected councillors less confident in mastering the detail of papers like this need supporting clarification – and are entitled to expect to get it – as a priority.
Councillors in ‘the administration’ are made aware of the budget proposals earlier than those in the opposition and get a greater level of prior support in understanding what is happening in these papers.
In this case the press was offered the interpretative support and the opportunity to ask specific questions for clarification before elected councillors were.
That is a clear breach of the Code of Conduct for salaried officers and it is a democratic deficit.
According to Councillor Freeman’s unquestionably authoritative comment below, the current ‘administration’ has departed from previous good practice where all councillors were simultaneously briefed on budget proposals.
At the moment there is improperly discriminatory management of this primary concern of all elected members.
And if you are happy with this, we are certainly not.
Before For Argyll’s sudden exclusion, on 5th January 2011, we were present at the press briefing on 5th November after the council meeting where the school closure proposals papers were returned to sender for a few weeks.
The closure proposal papers were narratives, understandable to anyone who read them properly.
Yet at that meeting the representatives of the Argyll local press asked no serious questions.
Instead, the representative of a senior paper suddenly launched into an oleaginous tribute to the principal architect of the disaster, Cleland Sneddon.
Only For Argyll and Andy Denholm, education correspondent for The Herald, asked – in that order – searching questions – and neither received answers of any substance.
Budget papers are infinitely harder to ‘read’ and grasp than these straightforward narratives.
If searching questions could not be asked at a press briefing on very straightforward material, it is unlikely that any will have been forthcoming on the matter pf budget proposals.
And as Councillor Freeman makes clear, opposition councillors would have had a series of searching questions to put – but were given no priority opportunity to do so.
In this instance, it is clear that ‘the administration’ felt that it was in its best interests to buy favour with the soft press and delay the clarifying questions from elected members outwith the ruling clique.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Trudie, have your sources been able to say who is on the new closure list?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
For the benefit of the clearly uninformed Trudie Wright, I can confirm that ForArgyll has got it spot-on and, that as far as those councillors who are outwith the Lib Dem / Tory / Independent administration in the Council are concerned, there is a great deal of ‘fury’ over the way the release of information relating to the budget has been handled.
We have now discovered that there was a press briefing yesterday on the budget proposals that those councillors outwith the administration knew nothing about. The first that I knew anything about the budget proposals was when I returned home this afternoon from a meeting to find that the 304 page Budget Pack had arrived in the post. I also discovered the press release on the budget proposals on the Council website. I am now working my way through the Budget Pack to try and discover what the press may have been told yesterday.
In past years a briefing was arranged for all councillors on the budget proposals. For some reason, the new Lib Dem / Tory / Independent administration has dispensed with the need for such a briefing for all councillors. The question must be asked why? Has it got anything to do with the additional £5.588 million cut in the former Supporting People funding that the Council now has to deal with? As we know, this has come about as a result of decisions taken by council Leaders at COSLA?
It is certain that those councillors outwith the administration will be wanting to ask what impact this massive additional cut in funding is going to have on the Council’s budget and the services that the Council is required to deliver to the residents of Argyll & Bute. This additional cut in funding relates to the equivalent of over £1 each week for every man, woman and child in Argyll & Bute, not just for the coming financial year, but for years to come. Could it be that it would be too embarrassing for the administration to try and answer such questions at such a briefing?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Maybe Trudie’s ‘close to the Council’ sources were a little too close to be loosening their lips around the truth rather than the spin perpetrated by ‘those who must be obeyed’
Providing a press briefing on budget proposals before, at least, briefing the opposition is symptomatic of the ‘ride rough shod’ approach to local politics that we should expect from this new administration. They are slicking their wounds (key players in the administration are famous for having no capcity to deal with criticism) and retaliating by publicly reminding people that their status in the Council gives them carte blanche to do as they wish.
Once again we must appeal to those members of the administration with more personal integrity than the collective group to turn their backs and walk out. Your constituents voted for you to represent them not to represent Dick Walsh.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Yes I agree, and you will find that a few in the ‘administration’ have contemplated their own future (perhaps with some due regard to self interest). Once the first one has the b##ls to actually do what is right and ‘walk’, there will be more to follow.
The first one to leave the administration will rightly receive great credit for their actions, putting their constituents first, as they will be free to make their own mind up on important decisions.
The pegs are getting more shoogly by the day.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
The important point here is to ditinguish between the actions of the independent Speaker of the House of Commons and the A & B actions. The Speaker, not only the present one, has regularly rebuked Cabinet members for doing this sort of thing He does not have the power to sack Civil Servants – even the Cabinet Secretary – but if a Civil servant took such action without the approval, in advance, of the Cabinet member concerned – that servant would go!
Can we expect a similar principled point of view from the pygmies in charge at Kilmory?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
A factor in the accelerating decline of Argyll and Bute is the lack of rigorous scrutiny of the Council’s behaviour by the local press.
This is not entirely the fault of the local press, though it sometimes has too cosy a relationship with the council and its officials.
This lack of effective press scrutiny is to a considerable extent a consequence of the aimless and ineffective independent administrations which have run A&B which have rarely been confronted by any cohesive or coordinated opposition.
In the more normal councils of Scotland the well defined opposition hold a well defined administration to account with line by line scrutiny on all its activities and this is where the press will find matters of substance to report and comment on.
It is a revolution A&B requires
Like or Dislike:
0 
0