New “lead Members” have been introduced at Thanet District Council, who will, in the future, support Cabinet Members.
The idea was agreed Thursday 21 May at a full Council meeting, when it was also agreed that they would receive no additional payments for undertaking this role.
There will be ten lead members, all from the Tory Group, each supporting the whole or a specific part of a Cabinet portfolio. Their brief will be to act as an advisor to their portfolio holder, lead on policy development, and chair advisory and consultative meetings. They will also be able to substitute for cabinet members at meetings, though not vote on their behalf.
The idea of a group of Councillors helping each of the members of the Council’s Cabinet may appear innocuous but on reflection will be seen as a mistake.
Ezekiel’s original proposal was for each of these Conservative members to be paid £500 annually. When it became apparent that this would not be popular with the council taxpayer, this was watered down, first to £200, and now to no payment at least for two years. A cynic might say that having used the carrot of payment to gain his colleagues votes for his leadership bid, Cllr Ezekiel no longer needs to risk the bad publicity.
Quite apart from the waste of money this is a ill thought through measure. At full Council, I asked two questions:
One, to the Chief Executive of the Council asking if this would further distort the relationship of his paid staff with members of one political party at the expense of others. Of the 33 Tory councillors on TDC, 2 are chair or vice chair of the council, 10 are committee chairs or vice chairs, 7 are in the Cabinet and now 10 are lead members. That is 29 out 33 with some executive role in the Council.
My other question was to the Council’s monitoring officer. I asked if Lead Members, through their intimate relationship with Cabinet Members, would effectively become part of the Council’s Executive and therefore not be available for the important task of holding the executive to account through scrutiny.
The monitoring officer is considering the implications of this.
Unexpected visitor (The Dumpton Non-conformist)
3 hours ago
25 comments:
Thanks for bringing this to our attention David. Isn't it about time that the people of Thanet, who had no choice in his re-election, were asked to sign a petition expressing a vote of no confidence in our council leader?
Why not start that petition yourself then "concerneed" resident?
The work done by local councillors is important and can be complex. But is the portfolio held by each Thanet Cabinet member really so varied and vast that this sort of local equivalent to Ministerial Advisers, or Parliamentary PPSs, is needed?
It is creating an obvious elite among Council members, it is signalling that decision-making will become the domain of an increasingly limited number of Councillors - and of course it is enhancing the influence of the discredited (among the public) Ezekiel.
Bad, bad idea.
David
I was under the distinct impression that lead members was a concept supported by Labour and without reading the minutes, I vaguely recall protests that it was "Labour's idea first".
The idea, as you well know is not to develop a further executive function but to develop the potential for career progression among councillors through working directly with the holders of cabinet portfolios and by doing so, offering a little extra responsibility and familiarity with the cabinet role.
As regards further remuneration for the same, this was both considered and rejected by the Group.
There does seem to be an automatic and perhaps arrogant assumption in the idea of continuity that in 2011the same Councillors will be elected.
I find it strange that Mr Ezekiel should suddenly discover, with a possible lack of confidence in him from his own party members, the desire to 'involve' almost all of them in 'governance' and originally with financial compensation being mooted. He has after all been Leader now for 6 years?
I think you raise a valid point here Cllr Green, about the paucity of Conservative members available to monitor the executive when so many of them are now part of it.
Cllr Green and Bertie are two very sad people
Why, who's upset them? : (
Hi sorry to go off thread I have set up a new blog http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/ and would appreciate it if you would link to it as I have done to yours, it is to be exclusively for publishing local press releases with proper feeds.
I won’t be publishing anything that isn’t mainstream it will be TDC and the main local politicians press releases only.
Oh, great. That means endless press releases from Conservative Central Office tweaked to be suitable for Laura Sandys to put out as her own.
I know it's not following this thread, but I see that Mark Nottingham's misfortune and distress - the lightening strike on his home - are causes of merriment and sarcasm over on Village Voices - the blog of local political turncoat and Tory Planning Chair, Ken Gregory.
Although to a lesser extent, the local Tory Spin "Doctor", Simeon Moores, is also smirking.
Well if proof were needed of the gutter-level moral standing of the local Tory Group, those two individuals provide it.
Get off your high horse Irish. You are the nastiest of them all.
Anon 17.35, I do not know who you believe I am - I posted the previous comment - but I have no Irish connections whatsoever. Either way, if your only capability is to insult on the basis of nationality - or probably race, sex, sexuality... - then you have the sadder lot in life.
Whoever you are you are the nastiest of them all.
As one of the pre mentioned Lead members, I would say that as chair of planning,I have an extra role, no extra dosh, and more work, but I cannot complain, I have four working limbs, a good house, and 4 great grand kids. So whats the problem?
As one of the pre mentioned Lead members, I would say that as chair of planning,I have an extra role, no extra dosh, and more work, but I cannot complain, I have four working limbs, a good house, and 4 great grand kids. So whats the problem?
ONE of your problems, Councillor Gregory, is your capacity to put your foot in your mouth.
You have done so classically with your offensive and ill-advised post about the lightening strike on Councillor Nottingham's house. Both you and Councillor Moores - whose thoughts and words you seem to mimic like a parrot - have made sarcastic reference to the event on your respective blogs. You have even admitted - again probably without thinking - that yours is a personal attack on Councillor Nottingham.
Your choice of such a personal misfortune on which to base an attack says a great deal about you, your friend (until you tire of the Conservative Party and "turn-coat" again - perhaps to UKIP?) and the morality of the Tory Party.
And before you or one of your frenzied supporters claims this post has come from a Labour Councillor, no it hasn't. I have no association with the Labour Party whatsoever. I just hate to see gutter political activity - like yours.
Anon 1357, then bug~~r off
Well said 20:18.
Ooh, Councillor Gregory has a supporter - probably him commenting anonymously.
I am normally a loyal tory voter but I am ashamed by the personal attacks by the so called tory councillors posting on this blog.
Where is your sense of english fair play sirs ? Kick a man while he is down ? It is pathetic.
As a protest I shall be voting for Cllr Green's wife in the forthcoming local elections.
Brian Plover
To: Mr Brian "pretending to be Tory" Plover
Thats kind of you, at least she will get one vote now!
I think it is time labour politicians and their poodles crawled back into their hole to wait for 10 years while David Cameron fixes the country.
Then you can come back again and cock it up like you always do.
By which time I'll be living in my villa on the Costa del Happy Life and won't care.
I think, 12.58, you sum up the Tory standpoint so well - you "don't care".
More seriously, cast your mind back to 1997, when the Conservatives experienced the drubbing in the Polls that all the evidence suggests Labour will now face.
It was not just about sleaze, it was about Conservative mismanagement of the country. Many of the policies introduced have since been derided, and in some cases blamed for certian of the economic problems we now face. That is NOT to say that Labour have not compounded the problems, or caused new ones, since 1997.
So why believe that Cameron will "fix" the country? The faith you put in him differs not a jot from the faith invested in Blair 12 years ago. And if you are so confident, why would Labour return in 10 years?
We are in a cycle of success/win/failure/lose. No Party, it seems, has the ability to win and sustain success.
As far as I can see Cameron's only platform for governing this great country is that he isnt the incumbent.
In a country screaming out for change it may be enough for most but I am looking for a bold vision to take us forward with confidence and pride and I cannot see it.
01 June, 2009 21:45
She got more than that, now didnt she ?
Congratulations to Cllr Liz Green keeping the red flag flying in Kent.
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