Councillor Ellen Morton, Depute Leader of Argyll and Bute Council has sent the following letter to the press, defending the ridiculous 8 minute meeting for which councillors were dragged from across Argyll and the Isles.
We leave it largely to the amusement of our readers but would note two things.
The spleen vented persistently on Councillor Louise Glen-Lee who is a newly elected member.
Councillor Glen_lee, in her former role as a journalist for the Oban Times had previously been regarded as quite well disposed to the council. Suddenly, because she is now an opposition member (SNP) she is transmogrified into the devil’s spawn.
This is politics at its worst and very typical of the unpleasant culture bred and energetically fostered by the long tie staple of council administrations, the mixumgatherum Alliance of Independent Councillors. It’s always ‘take the player not the ball’.
Secondly we note that Councillor Morton puts forward an astonishing conspiracy theory that the opposition lured the administration into holding a short meeting by submitting and then withdrawing them.She first applies ‘withdrawing’ in general terms, inferring that both were withdrawn. Then she admits that Councillor Robb’s was not withdrawn but ruled incompetent by the Provost.
She fails to take cognisance of the published fact – from Councillor Donald Kelly himself, that the Argyll First group withdrew their motion n advance and on advice that it ws not competent. They did not wish it to be ruled incompetent a second time at the meeting and fall foul of the six month rule, which prevents such motions from being pursued again for that period.
It is also unthinkable that Councillor Robb would be part of an organised opposition conspiracy of so fantastical a kind because, as the only non-aligned councillor, he is a free wheeler with no group affinities.
Moreover, the buck stops with the routine meeting – of Leader (Councillor Dick Walsh), Depute Leader (Councillor Morton herself), CEO (Sally Loudon), Executive Officer (Douglas Hendry) - in advance of full council meetings. They should have the experience to know what approximate time a given agenda will take. It’s their job. Particularly, since they claim to have been aware in advance that Councillor Robb’s motion would be ruled incompetent, there was nothing to indicate a meeting worth having.
And again – why had they not put Cleland Sneddon’s submission to the Rural Education Commission on that agenda? That would at least have been a retrospective courtesy to those whom the Executive had associated with it, without their ken.
Councillor Morton says not a peep about the discussions at that meeting and that alone is where the authority and the responsibility lies for the debacle that has put Argyll and Bute back in the joke book.
Councillor Morton’s letter
Sir
Councillor Louise Glen-Lee is a recently elected Member of Argyll & Bute Council and so it may be that, despite her years as a journalist attending Council meetings, she is unaware of the rules which govern meetings and the practice for meetings. This is the only charitable explanation I can find for her ill-informed and factually inaccurate attack in many national and local newspapers on other Councillors following the recent very brief Council meeting. She should surely be aware that Council meetings must be arranged well in advance, long before anyone knows exactly what business will need to be discussed and the Administration Councillors cannot simply decide not to go ahead with an arranged public meeting.
She also claims that 33 Councillors will claim expenses for a 7 minute meeting. That is simply not true. The 5 Helensburgh & Lomond Lib Dem and Conservative Councillors travelled in 2 cars so there will be NO expenses claim from 3 of them. Two Administration Independent Oban Councillors did the same car sharing to cut down expense. I am astonished that, according to Councillor Glen Lee, not a single SNP Councillor considered travelling with a colleague in order to keep costs down. The Liberal Democrat Councillors do it as a matter of course, as I am sure others do too.
Councillor Glen-Lee is also wrong when she suggests that any expenses claimed for that day will be for a very brief meeting and nothing else. I know that I, in common with many other hard working Councillors, attended 3 other meetings that day in Kilmory and did not leave until the late afternoon. It may be that, as a new Councillor, Councillor Glen-Lee does not have the workload that more experienced Councillors have to carry.
Councillor Glen Lee also wrongly claims that one Councillor had to incur 2 hotel nights for a 7 minute meeting – again not true – the Councillor concerned was in Kilmory on Wednesday for planning and licensing meetings which took up most of the day therefore it was a better use of time and money to remain up for Thursday’s meeting. Moreover the only Councillor who could justify such costs is an Island Councillor – does Councillor Glen-Lee believe that the people who live on our 25 inhabited islands are not entitled to the same level of representation as mainland residents for reasons of cost? Surely not.
This takes me to the reasons why the Council meeting was so brief. The main reason, and the totally unacceptable one in my view, is that the Opposition SNP and Argyll First Councillors failed totally to exercise properly their scrutiny role – they did not ask a single question or raise any points at all on any of the items of business, including an important finance paper. In my many years as Leader of the Opposition, I never let important papers pass without proper questioning of them, even if I then agreed to them.
The other reason the meeting was brief was that 2 motions put on the papers were not debated at all: the Argyll First one because it was withdrawn at the last minute; the other by Councillor James Robb because it was incompetent, a fact he had been advised of in advance of the agenda being published. Very unusually he had insisted on the incompetent motion appearing on the papers for the Provost to rule on.
If I were a suspicious, cynical person I might think that the motions were submitted and then withdrawn, and that no questions were asked to deliberately make the meeting brief, just so that this attack on the Council administration could be launched. However no responsible group of Councillors would dream of wasting taxpayers’ money like this so that cannot possibly be the reason. Can it?
Regards
Councillor Ellen Morton
Depute Leader
Argyll & Bute Council
I thought that the code of conduct covered slagging each other of in public but obviously you can forget that when it suits.Councillor Morton will you tell the Oban public which councillor from here instigated the attack on George Berry as my numerous FOI requests keep telling me that basically the coward can hide behind the personal data legislation.That is sadly the quality of some of the councillors we have but if honesty and respect are to be taken seriously we deserve an answer or you will all be tarred with the same brush.
The code of conduct is a joke especially in Argyll and Bute council, it is used to cover there backs and to try to hide information from the people it is supposed to serve.
Respect is something you earn the hard way not with a bit of useless paper.
Power to the people.
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Neil
The Code of Conduct specifically covers councillors conduct toward officers (in particular in Annex C) which states ‘Councillors should not raise matters relating to the conduct or capability of employees in public.’
However it also has 9 key principles with one of them being ‘Respect’ which states ‘You must respect all other councillors and all Council employees and the role they play, treating them with courtesy at all times. Similarly you must respect members of the public when performing duties as a Councillor.’
However when you look at the other 8 principles (Duty, Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability & Stewardship, Openness, Honesty, and Leadership) I think it is safe to say it is a case of ‘in for a penny, in for £18,000′ when it comes to the current administration paying little attention to them.
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Councillor Morton was also interviewed for the news on Your Radio yesterday.
As always, its everyone else’s fault.
On the subject of travelling expenses, she stated that she and a number of the Helensburgh ConDemAll’s car shared and that in fact we will only be out of pocket for the expenses of the 2 cars that did the journey.
So all’s well that ends well, its everyone else’s fault and an excuse to lay into Louise Glen-Lee for not being her pal anymore.
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I am only surprised that it was not Mr Russell’s fault.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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There is a simple solution to this 8 minute council meeting fiasco. Do not pay ANY expenses to the councillors who travelled to this un-necessary meeting. That will teach the council to more careful when calling meetings that only last 8 minutes. I suspect that island councillor in question who was at a planning and licensing meeting the previous day was Councillor Robin Currie. If that is correct I have stated in another post that Councillor Currie can travel to meetings in Lochgilphead from Islay leaving on the 7am sailing and returning on the 18.00 sailing from Kennacraig on the same day. Therefore I would not let him claim his overnight accomodation for attending this 8 minute meeting. The only was that councillors will learn is to hit them in their pockets!!
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Having attended some very… long… meetings… in my time I would be delighted if some of them had been only eight minutes long!
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This whole story is a wee bit daft surely. Both ‘sides’ have had their say, and frankly i dont see a significant breach of anything here, allthough there are many in other issues presenting themselves (many explored and initated sensibly by forargyll).
Cllr Currie appears to have justification for his overnighters due to his other duties. I dont see Cllr Glen Lee or Cllr Morton having done anything remotely wrong either. Its politics and its what politicians do.
We need to keep to the important subjects the electorate need to familiarise themselves with in the lead up to Mays election and realise what are the issues and what is tittle tattle and point scoring stuff. The voting public must differentiate between crucial matters that need addressed and not be sidelined by less important though entertaining red herrings like an 8 minute meeting which i would assume does not happen regularly.
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Councillor Morton.
I disagree with your views that residents of the 25 inhabited islands in Argyll & Bute require concillor representation. With modern technology this is not necessary and the number of councillors should be reduced accordingly.
Last year one of the Argyll & Bute councillors did not even have the courtesay to advise the local community councillors and members of the public attending a community council meeting which this councillor also attended, that there was to be an Area Committee Meeting in his constituency two days later. It was either incompetence by the Argyll & Bute councillor concerned or he did not want community councillors or members of the public attending the meeting. This meeting cost over £1000 in travelling expenses, lunches etc plus council employees taking valuable time away from their work to attend. Only ONE member of the public turned up at the Area Committee meeting.
Councillor Morton. To make easier for your to find out who this Argyll & Bute Councillor is I will give you a clue. He is a member of the Executive Group of Councillors on Argyll & Bute Council!!
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I have known Councillor Louise Glen Lee for a considerable length of time and I have always found her to be an individual of high integrity.
My late husband did not always have the same high regard for Councillor Morton’s character.
Councillor Morton deploys the age old tactic of shooting the messenger and deliverer of bad news instead of proffering a simple apology for a shambolic costly meeting and an assurance that she will endeavour to make sure that the situation is not repeated.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Good points from across the board on this subject but while I agree with you Phil it is important that the character of the councillors and the underhand ways they operate be exposed.Having a different political agenda or personnel opinion from someone else is what democracy is all about and I relish the challenge that debate brings.
The sad thing on the way George was attacked by the Oban councillor was that he used council staff to do his dirty,sneaky,lying business and now hides behind other councillors so by there silence they are as gutless as him.
Just starting to get wound up for the elections which are far more important than the referendum at this moment because we need to protect our area from the clowns at Kilmory.It is time for a big change before they ruin everthing.
Power to the people.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Can’t remember the exact year but the then labour opposition once published their manifesto which became known as the longest suicide note in history.
The letter I’ve read here today may be a suitable substitute for the local government world.
Never in my professional career have I read such a meandering blame it all in someone piece of drivel. No acknowledgment of lessons to be learnt improvements to be made, processes to be streamlined.
My grading for the above letter-Fail
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Just for the record Mrs Morton states “The other reason the meeting was brief was that 2 motions put on the papers were not debated at all: the Argyll First one because it was withdrawn at the last minute” In actual fact The Argyll First Motion was withdrawn on Monday 16th January at 4.08pm giving plenty of warning of the withdrawl considering the Full council meeting was on the 19th January.
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Cllr Morton may think that she is not a suspicious cynical individual but that is certainly what comes across from her conduct here.
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