Bullshit Bingo with a side-helping of Scymraeg

The management consultants, local authority limos and various other hangers-on were all in Swansea today for the Swansea Bay City Region 2013 Conference.

Carmarthenshire sent its own delegation, including such luminaries as Meryl Gravell, Mark James and Wendy Walters, Head of Regeneration.

Judging from the Twitter feed, the Met Office should have put out one of its warnings because there seems to have been a positive deluge of cliches, as well as some very dodgy Welsh translation:

Prif Weithredwr o @CarmsCouncil cadeiriau ail Q&A cynhadledd @SB_CityRegion #SBCR2013 #cityregion

Here is what he had to say as he was busy stacking the chairs (all taken from the SB City Region Twitter feed):

"Public and private working in true partnership" says Chief Exec Mark James.

 "Collaboration" isn't a new idea, we have been working in collaboration for years says Mark James.

 "Local authority rivalry is something we have already overcome" says Chief Exec Mark James.

 "We are determined to get this right" says Mark James.

 "Don't wait for us to come to you, if you have ideas tell us" says Mark James when addressing local businesses.

Sadly, this flow was interrupted by lunch.

Meryl's contribution seems to have passed by more or less without comment, except for this:

 "We can create jobs even in rural areas" says Cllr Meryl Gravel.

Perhaps Cllr "Gravel" ought to have let on that her council was about to destroy hundreds of jobs as well (low-paid ones, naturally).

After the buffet it was Our Wendy's turn. Here she goes:

"Priority for moving forward is to ensure policies that are delivered are relevant and needed" says Wendy Walters.

"The support we give rural businesses needs a bottom up approach" says the Head of Regeneration at Carmarthenshire Council.

 "Doesn't always take more cash to have a bigger impact" says Wendy Walters when addressing the recent local authority budget cuts.

Somebody called Wayne Reynolds, Director at Atriarc Planning and Construction, thought this was "a very good presentation". Presumably he's hoping to bag a contract.

So there we are, boys and girls. Isn't it reassuring that we are paying top dollar for these insights?

What's On at the Ffwrnes: Carry On Cutting

Carmarthenshire County Council's attempt to manage the news with its bizarre budget cuts seminar is set to become a PR nightmare as it descends into farce.

Plaid Cymru, which with 28 councillors is the largest political group on the council, recently offered to join the ruling Labour and Independent groups to form a rainbow coalition in order to deal with the looming crisis in council funding, but the prospect of having to surrender a chunk of their special responsibility allowances and perks and share power was clearly a step too far for Kevin Madge, Pam Palmer and the rest of the "dream team".We now face the prospect of watching them clinging on to their portfolios and wringing their hands as they tell us how lonely and difficult it is at the top.

Lonely they certainly will be at the seminar in Llanelli on Monday, because Plaid will now be sending along just a handful of observers to the event, and it has promised to challenge the unjust and unfair proposals being cobbled together in County Hall.

"We will hold those who make such decisions to account. We will give a voice to the vulnerable and support those who suffer job or service losses", Peter Hughes Griffiths has promised.

Attempts by the Ministry of Spin to get the media to participate in discussions about where to wield the axe, and so make them part of the process rather than reporting independently on it, have been met with incredulity by the more reputable media organisations, including the boys from the Beeb.
The council can look forward to coverage which pays at least as much attention to protests outside the theatre and the democratic deficit inside the venue as it does to the proposals themselves.

This statement does not apply to the Carmarthen Journal and Llanelli Star, of course, whose copy is ready and waiting in the council's press office.

Shall we cut it off, Meryl?

A managed democracy - Part II: A modest proposal

If the chief executive of Carmarthenshire County Council has his way, old fashioned council meetings with  their occasional griping, criticism and awkward questions could soon be a thing of the past. Very soon, in fact. Out with the monthly farce where opposition councillors try to hold the executive to account and are told that their questions are not admissible, and in with what sounds for all the world like seminars run by management consultants, dressed up as debates.

News of Mr James's proposals first emerged a couple of weeks back when Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM issued a press release calling on the Welsh Government to intervene in the running of the county council (post here)

Mr James feels that councillors simply don't understand what their job is, and as a result there are a lot of sour-faced elected councillors moping about County Hall who feel frustrated that all decisions of any significance have been delegated to the Executive Board, and that they have no say in anything. Even more disappointingly, lots of county councillors seem to feel the need to drag up stuff which has been dealt with off camera by the various scrutiny committees. Or other bodies such as the Audit Committee, scene of so much needless unpleasantness recently.

The acting Head of Administration and Law, Mrs Rees Jones, has been looking at how other councils do things, it seems. Which councils is not clear, but for all we know it could well be councils in Zimbabwe or Russia, or places that call themselves "Democratic People's Republics".

When she is not watching the chief executive's courtroom appearances or dishing out novel interpretations of the council's constitution, Mrs Rees Jones is also responsible for "Democratic Services", which just goes to show that someone in County Hall really does have a sense of humour.

Every so often parts of council meetings are handed over to guest speakers. These have included Pastor Mark Bennett of Towy Community Church in the past, and forthcoming attractions may include the Scarlets, BT talking about superfast broadband, and some apparatchik from the WLGA talking about finances and possible changes to local government. The chief executive would also like councillors to learn more about what he is doing to transform various council departments with a series of thrilling Powerpoint presentations.

If that were not exciting enough, Pam Palmer has a couple of ideas of her own.

Yes, Pam is in on the proposed changes as well, although that should come as no surprise to Kremlin watchers because Mrs P has a lot of previous when it comes to stifling debate and reining in naive attempts to make the council's dealings more open and transparent. It is no secret, for example, that Pam and Meryl were opposed to allowing that new fangled moving picture technology into the chamber, and are looking for any excuse to stop it.

So instead of nitpicking and quibbling, councillors and any members of the public with nothing better to do, would settle in once a month to a long seminar with guest strategic partners, presentations on departmental transformation and council successes such as PVC installation schemes and diesel consumption targets.

If you think this is just Cneifiwr cracking feeble jokes, think again. This is exactly what is being proposed.

Of course, all this would mean that there would be no time or space for that dull business of raking over committee minutes and asking unpleasant questions.

Can't wait? Well, you may be in luck because the chief executive would like this new arrangement to begin on a trial basis in November!

In the longer term this would require changes to standing orders, and senior councillors would have to persuade their backbenchers that they really don't want to see committee reports any more.

By pure coincidence a pilot in November would mean that it would not be possible for councillors to ask questions about the Audit Committee meeting and the Wales Audit Office. But it seems that that is a sacrifice Mr James is prepared to make.

A managed democracy - Part I

Carmarthenshire County Council is nothing if not inventive when it comes to finding new ways of subverting local democracy, as we can see from two of the latest initiatives.

A managed democracy

Councillors, the press and representatives of selected businesses have been invited to take part in a seminar next Monday to look at a package of proposals for spending cuts drawn up by senior officers and presumably sanctioned by the ruling lights of the Labour/Independent coalition.

Siân Caiach has written to the South Wales Guardian to express her concerns that councillors will be given just three hours to review a number of pre-packaged options. Backbench and opposition councillors will not have had sight of what is being put on the table until the meeting itself; they will have no opportunity to consult with their voters and they will not have time for detailed discussion or debate.

In other words, councillors will be blindfolded, nudged, guided and bounced into giving their blessing to a package of deep cuts to services which will be rubber stamped in due course in a municipal version of the game of pinning the tail onto a donkey.

If you have ever been to a council-run seminar, you will be familiar with how this works. Options are presented in stage one. In stage two most of those options will be dismissed as unworkable or unviable, and then, as if by magic, participants are given the impression that by consensus they have agreed on (small fanfare and drum roll) Option X. Miraculously the people running the seminar will just happen to have a series of detailed Powerpoint slides setting out why Option X was such a wise decision.

Which businesses have been invited and why is something we probably won't find out until after the event, but given that the chief executive has spoken recently about "delivering services in different ways", it is quite possible that we are talking about outsourcing, and that councillors will find themselves rubbing shoulders with the commercial beneficiaries of exciting new strategic partnerships. Watch this space.

The format of the seminar will be to divide participants into groups. That means that there will be no opportunity for any councillors to raise concerns or ask questions which will be heard by the audience as a whole. Any awkward questions will be contained within the individual groups.

The decision to invite the press to participate in the process rather than merely report on it is also something which should ring alarm bells.The council says it wants the media to understand the process, but by making them part of the process it is ensuring that they too are carefully herded into supporting it. An independent, questioning local press then becomes a willing accomplice to the deed.

In part II this blog will look at new proposals for changing the format of council meetings and putting an end to unwanted scrutiny of executive decisions.

It looks as though democracy, or what is left of it in Carmarthenshire, is about to be replaced with a new system of management by seminar.

 

Numeracy skills

Update

The council's press office has now decided to add its pennyworth with a story explaining the deal in carefully chosen words. 3.5% above base rate is, we are told "a better return than any other commercial investment". Really?

But it's still not as good a return as the 7% we were getting before, something which the council's press office mysteriously forgot to mention. Not to mention the millions wasted by the council on the scheme since 2007 - the rent-free stadium, the huge hidden subsidies, the cost of all the bailouts and the gift of commercially valuable land to the club.

What an investment and what a return!

___________________________

To nobody's surprise the latest bailout of the Scarlets by Carmarthenshire County Council was approved unanimously at Monday's meeting of the Executive Board. No surprise, not least because everything which is up for "consideration" at board meetings is always approved unanimously.

The Ministry of Spin has been at it again, as we can see from the Llanelli Star's treatment of the story.

The first line of the article reads,

CARMARTHENSHIRE Council is set to reap extra cash after hiking interest rates on a multi-million pound loan to the Scarlets.

Any readers familiar with the details (not included in the newspaper's coverage) might wonder how a new interest rate of 4% constitutes a hiking of interest rates which were previously set at 7%.

Here is how it works. The original loan was £2.4 million, with interest set at 7%. Back in 2010 the club asked for relief, and a deal was struck whereby it would pay 4% interest, with the remaining 3% being rolled up to form part of the loan. This has meant that the loan outstanding has now risen by £216,000 to £2.61 million.

By cutting the interest rate (not "hiking" it) to 3.5% above base rate, the club will now pay 4% on the entire debt as opposed to 7% previously.

That will indeed bring in an extra £8,000 of cash, but the deal actually means a rather bigger loss to the taxpayer of around £78,000 per year currently. Because the new interest rate is variable, the actual extent of the write-off is anyone's guess, but over the 10 years remaining, the taxpayer has probably just given the club somewhere between £750,000 and £900,000.

Any accountants out there will be able to come up with their own figures.

Not mentioned in the Llanelli Star's write-up is that the new deal will also mean that payments by the club into the sinking fund meant to cover repairs and maintenance of the stadium have been, er, "hiked" from the originally agreed rate of £125,000 per year to £10,000 per annum this year, and £15,000 from 2016. The fund, payable to the county council, was to have been capped at £500k, rising from then on by inflation.

In other words, the new deal reduces sinking fund payments by the club to the council by around £320,000 over the next three years.

In return the club has agreed to make its squad available to the council for PR purposes on terms to be agreed, while the thresholds at which the club would start paying rent on Parc y Scarlets have been reduced. Given that there is no likelihood of these thresholds being reached in the foreseeable future, that was not a difficult concession to make.

To its slight credit, the Star does note that the meeting which approved the new bailout also approved plans to get shot of the council's public playing fields, bowling greens, etc.

As they say, don't believe everything you read in the papers. And especially not if it's the Carmarthen Journal or Llanelli Star reporting on the county council.

Shwmae Sir Gâr

Mae'r Cynghorydd Huw George, sydd yn Ddirprwy Arweinydd Cyngor Sir Benfro, wedi gosod esiampl gyda'i fersiwn o hen glasur Meic Stevens Shwmae Shwmae!

Beth amdani 'te, Fwrdd Gweithredol Cyngor Sir Caerfyrddin? Gawn ni glywed detholiad o oreuon Kev - "Penderfyniadau anodd", "Smo fi'n byw yn y byd go iawn" neu "Toriadau ar raddfa Feiblaidd", er enghraifft? Neu beth am ddeuawd gan Pam Palmer a Tegwen Devichand? Fydd ein dwy ddirprwy arweinydd yn siglo'u bwti ar Youtube, tybed?

Ond, erbyn meddwl.....

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCISsPx1Fm8SG53Nqa99zOhw

Dirprwy Arweinydd Cyngor Sir Benfro

Budget cuts - an invitation

Carmarthenshire County Council will be holding a seminar at the Ffwrnes Theatre in Llanelli on 21 October to consider some 40 different options for slashing spending over the next three years.

According to the blurb, the event will enable those taking part to:

• Discover more about the Council's current financial position;
• Consider proposed options for savings;
• Contribute ideas and suggestions relevant to the budget; and
• Be clear about the process that will be followed in arriving at the budget for 2014-15

Invitations have gone out to all 74 of the council's elected councillors, as well as selected representatives of the local media and some businesses.

That puts the councillors in their place, doesn't it?

In practice "local media" will mean primarily a couple of hacks from the James Journal and its stable mates, and their presence suggests that the main thrust of this event is a PR exercise to ensure that the papers are on message.

The manager of the council's press office will no doubt be on hand to make sure that they leave knowing what to say.

Who the selected businesses are is anyone's guess. Sainsbury's? The Scarlets? Representatives of third sector organisations such as Towy Community Church (a registered company, by the way)? Perhaps someone from R&A Properties from nearby Llangennech, whose owners are "known to the council's officers". R&A's clients include Cassidian (drones and armoured vehicles).

Somehow it seems unlikely that invitations will have gone out to Unison and other stakeholders who might ask awkward questions.

Invitations to other representatives of the local media, such as the bloggers, have not yet arrived.

Perhaps Unison and other uninvited but interested parties may wish to go along anyway. Registration begins at 9.15.

Dear Terry - a mid-term report

Despite the best efforts of the top brass in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire county councils, the scandals surrounding what the Wales Audit Office regards as unlawful payments to senior officers are not going to go away. In Pembrokeshire Old Grumpy has unearthed information which suggests that the committee which approved the pensions tax dodge did not have the authority to do so.

But it was what he had to say about the office of Council Chair which got Cneifiwr thinking. Referring to the election of Vice Chair, he says:

The vice-chairman is automatically elevated to the chair the following year, so, given the vast powers invested in the chairman, this is a very important election.
It is also important that the chairman is impartial, which means it shouldn't be a party political appointment.
And it should be remembered that the chairman represents all the people of Pembrokeshire - not just the ruling cabal.

There have been three different council chairs in Carmarthenshire since this blog began, and in this county the three main political parties take it in turns to provide a chair for the year. The current occupant is Terry Davies (Lab).

The role of Chair requires a range of skills. Personality is by a long way the most important. You have to be outgoing and engaging, both as an ambassador outside the council chamber and within it. In the council chamber you have to be a good listener and have a good grasp of the procedures. A sense of humour is vital.

Siân Thomas (Plaid) and Terry Davies (Lab), although very different in their own ways, tick these boxes. The less said about Ivor Jackson's (Independent) year in the job, the better.

But the role is bigger than that. Siân Thomas brought wit and eloquence to the post, and she was scrupulously non-partisan. She would probably also be the first to admit that in key respects she struggled and failed to live up to the job description set out in the council's constitution because the role has been undermined and hollowed out by the controlling, bullying and anti-democratic culture which has developed at the top of the council.

Terry Davies has many qualities, but questioning and challenging authority are not among them, and last week's meeting of the full council showed how far the supposedly most senior office in the council has sunk.

At one point during the meeting Terry expressed the view that the public would not want to see the council turned into a local version of the yah-boo antics of the House of Commons, and about that he is surely right. But the council chamber is very far from being like that, even at its stormiest.

What Terry hasn't twigged is that the council is being brought into disrepute not by rowdy councillors, but by the council leadership's blatant manipulation of the rules and its determination to prevent open and free debate. Issues which are of concern to ordinary people in the county are just not up for discussion.

In her own peculiar way Cllr Jane Tremlett, who is responsible for Adult Social Care and Health, demonstrated the gulf which exists between the council's leadership and ordinary people when she said that a motion critical of the Welsh Government's Health Minister over the downgrading of the hospital in Llanelli "could well damage the good name of our council".

Perhaps it's just the revulsion felt by a well-brought up middle class woman at the frightful prospect of making a scene. But it's a bit worrying that this is the person who is the main link between the council and the NHS.

Dissent is bad. Dissent must be stamped on.

But back to Terry Davies.

The problem is, Terry, that democracy is all about dissent and differing views. Any organisation which stifles debate and discussion and allows only one view is a doomed organisation.

Here are some of the main duties of the Council Chair as described by the Council's much amended and increasingly unbalanced and subverted constitution:

Act as a symbol of the Council’s democratic authority

As the ceremonial head of the Council, to be non-political and uphold the democratic values of the Council

The Chair exercises an ambassadorial role for all citizens of the County and as such it is crucial that the dignity of the office is upheld at all times and the protocols in place are closely followed.


Chair Council meetings

To preside over meetings of the Council, so that its business can be carried out efficiently and with regard to the rights of councillors and the interests of the community.

To ensure that the Council conducts its meetings in line with the Council’s Standing Orders.

To ensure that the council meeting is a forum for the debate of matters of concern to the local community and the place at which councillors are able to hold the executive board and committee chairs to account.

Uphold and promote the Council’s Constitution

To uphold and promote the purposes of the Council’s Constitution at meetings of the Council and, if necessary, to rule on the interpretation of the Constitution

Internal governance, ethical standards and relationships

To promote and support good governance of the Council and its affairs

To promote and support open and transparent government

Let's be honest, Terry. You're not doing a very good job when measured against these criteria, are you?

The way in which last week's meeting ended is by no means the first time things have gone badly off the rails, but it serves as a reminder of what has happened to the office of Council Chair.

When Cllr Darren Price announced his intention of calling for a suspension of standing orders, you immediately abdicated responsibility to the council's acting head of law. What happened next was a brazen misinterpretation of the constitution by the council's officers who conflated rules relating to emergency items with the rules relating to suspending standing orders.

You allowed that to take place when you should have intervened to uphold the constitution.

In the final minutes of the meeting, the Chief Executive seized control from you and addressed councillors directly without going through the chair. He also announced that the meeting was closed.

 The result was that a vote was taken without councillors knowing what they were voting to allow or prevent.

Is that good governance? Does that promote and support open and transparent government?  In what way were you upholding the constitution? What about the rights of councillors and the interests of the community?

Above all, how does your action square with the provision that "the council meeting is a forum for the debate of matters of concern to the local community and the place at which councillors are able to hold the executive board and committee chairs to account?"

As for upholding the dignity of the office at all times, you really need to have a word with the Chief Executive, because he made you look pretty stupid, didn't he?

Terry, let's be honest. You look the part, and there is no question that you represent the council well at all those dire buffets and municipal functions, but you've got to act the part as well.

Council of Despair - The Supreme Sacrifice

By Sali Mali-Cachu

The Chief wandered into the Reichstag Chamber where workers were busy sweeping up the debris from the raid earlier in the week. Bits of paper fluttered in the wind from the gaping holes in the roof, and plaster lay strewn across the floor. Sprayed on the wall was some graffiti which read, "SC woz ere", and rather puzzlingly another message which read "I ni y bydd dial, medd Cylch yr Iaith. Watsiwch mas".

"Ms Klebb, what is the meaning of this?" the Chief asked his Propaganda Minister.

"Oh, just someone saying that his watch is broken. And I am pleased to report, Kommandant, that the Home Front will be spared worrying about any of this. The Reichs Journal is concentrating on the news that we have dealt most severely with 19 people in the last week alone for dropping cigarette ends and sweet wrappers."

The assault on the building had been a close run thing, culminating in an attempt by a young man with spectacles and a broken leg to raise the hated "Ddraig Goch" from the top of the Reichstag.

The old place had taken a severe pounding from the enemy, urged on as usual by sections of the Press Corps and bloggers hurling incendiaries. If it hadn't been for the Chief's last minute intervention which brought matters to a sudden end, who knows what could have happened.

He shuddered, and recalled his telephone conversation a couple of days ago with his old friend and ally Brynito down in the sunnier climes of Pembroccia.

Brynito had been hysterical. "Eccellenza, they trya keel me. This mob they trya lynch me from a lampost. Marco, bois-a-bach, whaddya wanna me do?"

There had been many times when the Chief had regretted getting tangled up with Brynito Bach and his tinpot regime, which lurched from one crisis to the next.

"I will send you an elite detachment of my special legal forces. That should tie any troublemakers down for a few months", he had said before slamming the phone down.

________________________

Back in the calm of the Executive Suite, Smithers was waiting with a soothing cup of the Prince's Own Myddfai Herbal Remedy.

"There is a deputation from the Olympic Stadium to see you, your Highness. It seems they have run out of money again."

"Show them in, Smithers", said the Chief, and moments later a group of men in blazers was seated around the Louis Quinze mahogany conference table.

"Sir, your great legacy is in jeopardy unless we can secure a new funding agreement," the Chairman began.

The Chief thought of his beautiful, gleaming Olympic Park which was now about to be enhanced with a brand new 24-hour hostelry and a kiddy friendly alcopops bar.

"How much?" asked the Chief.

"Well, 200 grand a year until the next election should keep us ticking over. About £800,000 in total. We'll need quite a bit more after that, mind. In return the squad will perform their Chippendales routine at the shopping centre next door for free once a month. That should bring the housewives flocking in."

"You drive a hard bargain, Mr Chairman, and times are difficult. Let's call it a million and be done with the haggling."

The tense negotiations with the Olympic delegation had barely ended when the Head Beancounter phoned.

"But, Sir, we just don't have that kind of money. We cannot afford these grandiose schemes any more".

The Chief thought things over for a moment. "I have as always a solution to our little money problems, Roger", the Chief said soothingly. "Call 400 or so assorted junior staff together in the Chancellery Courtyard for 22.00 hours prompt."

Turning to Smithers as Terry purred loudly from his vantage point on his master's lap, the Chief barked, "And call the General Staff for a Conference in the Bunker at 10.00 on Monday sharp. I am going to show those pathetic cowards how we will achieve a final victory and destroy the opposition once and for all".

____________________________________

Later that evening the Chief shuffled out in his greatcoat to address the assembled staff in the Great Courtyard.

"Cheer, Schweinhunds!" Ms Klebb ordered the sullen crowd. A half-hearted murmur echoed across the square as the Chief mounted his podium.

"These are hard and desperate times", the Chief began. "Reichs Gauleiter von Matsch has told you often enough that we face great challenges and difficult decisions. Unfortunately he cannot be with us this evening as he has a pressing gala engagement elsewhere, and so it falls to me to call upon you all to make the supreme sacrifice to.....".

The Chief's voice tailed off as he read the words Ms Klebb had printed for him on a specially embossed card.

"die like the vermin you are and in line with our Strategic Assessment in order to facilitate an exciting and bio sustainable eco friendly shoppertainment complex opening soon with Dai Green and the Scarlet Strippers in an all-you-can-eat bonanza of family fun and frolics".

"Ms Klebb, I think something has gone wrong with this news release. But no matter."

Turning to the crowd, the Chief took up where he had left off.

"To make the ultimate sacrifice for me and our glorious thousand year Authority. Bearing this in mind, you are all sacked. Mrs von Palm has your P45s."

Jobs for a few of the boys, the sack for hundreds of others

Update

For a very well researched and informative review of the Scarlets story, take a look at Caebrwyn's take (here). The WAO's concerns about the council's exposure to a potential failure of the Scarlets venture should make all councillors sit up and take notice, and as Jacqui notes, the discussion which took place on this warning at the recent Audit Committee meeting has been entirely omitted from the minutes.

What you will also see from Jacqui's post is the very selective nature of the council's approach to what information it is prepared to put into the public domain when it comes to the Parc y Scarlets deal. The decision to publish the proposed refinancing deal described below is beginning to look suspiciously like a PR tactic. 

_____________________________________

Compare and contrast this headline from the BBC:

Carmarthenshire council warns hundreds of jobs will go

or this one from the Tivyside Advertiser:

 County council may have to give up playing fields

with a report up for approval by the council's Executive Board next week which recommends a further significant softening of the terms of the financing package extended by the council to the Scarlets back in 2007. The report (here) is a carefully written exercise in self-justification which contains the eye-popping statement that "members need to balance the interests of the taxpayer with that of the club".

The main recommendations of the report are that interest on the club's debt of £2.616 million to the council should be reduced from 7% to 3.5% above base rate (which would currently mean an effective rate of 4%), and that just in case interest rates should soar, the rate would be capped at 10%. 

So if interest rates spiralled and meant disaster for businesses and anyone with a mortgage, the club would be protected from the worst.

The sinking fund, set up to ensure that there would be enough money in the kitty to carry out maintenance work on the facilities leased to the club, was meant to have been receiving annual payments of £125,000 from the club by now, but in 2010 payments were "deferred" (actually "cancelled" would be a more correct term) for three years, and are due to resume again this year, with the payment by the club of £25,000.

The council's officers are proposing that this obligation should be further reduced to just £10,000.

In return, the club will make members of its squad available for any PR activities the council might want to undertake (subject to further negotiation on the number of days they would pose for pictures).

According to the report, the club also offered to reduce the thresholds at which it starts paying rent for the council-owned stadium and facilities (it has not actually paid any to date) in the event that it one day makes a profit.

The report's recommendations appear to let the club off that rather hypothetical hook, leaving the original thresholds in place and therefore deferring the day when the council might actually get some revenue from the venture to an unknown and most likely very distant future date.

Readers will recall that the club treats the stadium as an asset in its accounts and recently made a tidy profit from the sale of a chunk of land on the site, even though it does not pay rent or currently contribute towards the maintenance fund.

The report places the blame for all this not on the council and the officers who originally entered into the deal, but on the economic downturn. The best the council's crystal ball can come up with is a statement that, "the current economic conditions will not last forever, and it is hoped that sometime between now and 2023, the financial climate will improve".

Hundreds of people losing their jobs means hardship for them and their dependents. Thousands of people, in other words. Users of the council's bowling greens, rugby, football and cricket pitches face huge increases in charges or the loss of their sports facilities. Council taxpayers face drastic cuts in services and another painful hike in council tax.

But at least the council is balancing their interests with the interests of the Scarlets, or rather with the interests of its chief executive whose brainwave the whole Parc y Shambles disaster was.

And let's not forget that we'll be able to enjoy the PR photo shoots. 

And finally......

Council watcher anoraks will have spotted that the report was not hidden behind the usual public interest exemption.

Bearing in mind that many much less commercially sensitive matters are kept firmly secret (the pensions tax dodge, the proposed transfer of public loos to community councils, etc.), this is striking. Of one thing we can be sure: it does not herald a new dawn of openness and transparency.

Anyone with any ideas why this piece of heavily laundered linen has been hung out for all and sundry to gawp at should get in touch.

 

 

Gagged, insulted and sent packing

One of the many good things about Carmarthenshire's decision to pilot the filming of council meetings is that everyone can see for themselves how low the council has sunk and who is really running the show.

 

Yesterday's meeting is by no means the first example of its kind, but previously you had to go in person to witness the utter contempt shown by senior officers and their willing accomplices in the chamber for the democratic process. Councillors have been gagged for a long time now, and anyone who is openly critical can be expected to be belittled. Not for the first time, they were also sent packing by the unelected chief executive.

 

Below is the text of a press release issued by Plaid Cymru calling on the Welsh Government to sit up and take notice. Don't hold your breath in the expectation that the wise monkeys in Cardiff Bay will do anything, however.

 

As Caebrwyn noticed yesterday, the next step will be for the council to pull the plugs on filming, and they have already inserted a little warning in the introductory speech given by the Chair that the council reserves the right to stop the cameras.

 

________________________________________

 

 

The Welsh Government Minister for Local Government has been asked to intervene in the way in which Carmarthenshire County Council undertakes its proceedings.

 

Noting what he considers to be a ‘democratic deficit’ in County Hall, Assembly Member Rhodri Glyn Thomas has called on the Welsh Government to examine the culture in Carmarthenshire Council and how  democratically elected councillors are prohibited from raising matters in meetings of the full council.

 

In this month’s meeting of the full council Plaid Cymru County Councillor for Gorslas ward, Darren Price, proposed to suspend the council’s standing orders to raise a matter.  Councillors were invited to vote but Councillor Price was not allowed to ‘make the case’ for his request.

 

Rhodri Glyn Thomas believes Councillors were not provided accurate information by the authority’s officers and proper processes were not followed as Councillors were told to vote without knowing what they were voting on.

 

Yesterday's episode in full council follows a series of instances where opposition councillors have been prohibited from raising matters in the Council.  Previous attempts to raise matters through the council’s  ‘any other business’ equivalent resulted in that agenda item being removed from all future meetings. 

 

Leader of the Plaid Cymru Councillor Group on Carmarthenshire County Council, Peter Hughes Griffiths said it is almost impossible for opposition councillors to have any input into decision making.  He also expressed his disappointment that the Leader of the authority, Labour’s Kevin Madge, rejected his request for a statement regarding the on-going legal row with the Wales Audit Office and its claims of “unlawful” payments made on behalf of the Chief Executive, Mark James.

 

In his letter to the Local Government Minister, AM Rhodri Glyn Thomas has exposed that the Chief Executive has recently proposed changing the format for full council meetings which will remove entirely any opportunity for councillors to scrutinise Executive Board decisions in full council meetings.  The Plaid Cymru AM requested the Minister considered placing Carmarthenshire Council into ‘special measures’ until faith in the democratic process had been restored.

 

Assembly Member for Carmarthen East & Dinefwr Rhodri Glyn Thomas said:

 

“In the almost fifteen years I have represented Carmarthenshire in the National Assembly I have never known public confidence in the County Council to be so low.

 

“There appears to be a culture in which decisions are made behind closed doors; with very little opportunity for opposition councillors to challenge or discuss decisions which have been made.  The recent revelation surrounding the Chief Executive’s new pension arrangement is a case in point.

 

“The Council’s constitution has been manipulated over a number of years to concentrate power in the hands of a select group of officers and executive board members.  Even when councillors follow the letter of that constitution to raise matters of concern, they immediately find themselves hitting an ‘officer road block’.  

 

“When Councillor Darren Price requested the suspension of standing orders at this week’s full council meeting, I am at a loss to explain why officers advised councillors to vote on the request without knowing what issue they were voting on.

 

“There is without doubt a democrat deficit in Carmarthenshire.  It’s my view that senior officers are working on behalf of the Labour and Independent coalition instead of the council as a whole.  The way in which some senior officers provide advice to councillors can only be likened to an officer operating a ‘veto’ on council business.  As an elected representative it is my duty to raise these matters with government Ministers.

 

“I have called on the Welsh government to intervene in the way the County Council conducts its affairs.  The people of Carmarthenshire deserve better than the way in which the current administration operates.”

 

 

Leader of the Plaid Cymru Councillor Group Peter Hughes Griffiths added:

 

“The Council is embroiled in a legal battle with the Wales Audit Office over two unlawful payments of around £40,000 involving the Chief Executive.

 

“But despite my request, it is a deep disappointment that the Labour Leader of the Council has refused to make a statement to the council and explain to us, as elected representatives of Carmarthenshire communities, exactly what the auditor has said and how this impacts on the council.

 

“It is almost impossible for opposition councillors to have any input into decision making.  We are continuously kept in the dark about decisions until they are made.  Decisions such as the Chief Executive’s pension arrangement have also been made without members of the public knowing these items were even up for discussion.  This sort of practice is potentially unlawful and cannot be allowed to continue.

 

“Carmarthenshire Council needs an urgent political reboot and a complete change of guard.  I therefore fully endorse the steps taken by Assembly Member Rhodri Glyn Thomas in requesting Welsh government intervention into the way in which this Labour-Independent council is operating.”

 

Council Meeting October 9

Update

Today's meeting attracted quite a lot of attention outside Carmarthenshire, and I have already been contacted by several people who are familiar with the workings of councils elsewhere.

It is always useful to get the views of outsiders, and the reactions are of shock and amazement at the culture which has been allowed to develop in our county council. Rude, patronising, arrogant and smug are among the publishable words. One wrote, "I cannot believe the way the chief executive talks to councillors".

The trouble is that it's been going on for so long, we have come to think that this is normal.

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Not the usual post-match analysis because work means that Cneifiwr will not be able to get round to watching the meeting until the weekend. If you missed it, the broadcast should be available in the archive from some point tomorrow here.

By all accounts today's meeting was the usual travesty, with Labour and the Independents combining to shoot down criticism of the downgrade (sorry, "upskilling and reconfiguration") of accident and emergency services at Llanelli's Prince Philip Hospital.

Attempts by councillors to discuss the current scandals involving the libel indemnity and pensions tax dodge were also quashed, thanks to the usual manipulation and innovative interpretations put on the rule book by the Prevention of Democracy department.

So there we are. The two biggest issues in Carmarthenshire at the moment. One voted down, and the other ignored.

Ombudsman for Public Services Wales

Peter Tyndall is to step down as Ombudsman for Public Services and return to his native Dublin, where he is taking up a similar role. There is no news yet as to who will take over, but Peter Tyndall has set the bar very high and will be missed.

The Ombudsman's role and his powers are subject to far too many restrictions, and Peter Tyndall has done a superb job under the circumstances to help ordinary people across Wales achieve at least some justice in their dealings with incompetent and at times unfair and even vindictive representatives of public bodies.

It would be good to hear his views on how he thinks the Ombudsman's role should be developed and the changes that are needed before he departs.

A stand-off, but will anyone blink?

Update

The Plaid Cymru group on the council (in opposition despite being the largest) has asked the Leader of the Council, Kevin Madge (Lab) for an official statement on the dispute at tomorrow's meeting.

He does not have to agree to make a statement, but will be aware that a refusal will not look good. If he does agree, the Chief Executive will most likely have to vacate the chamber and watch proceedings on the live webcast.

And of course if Kev does make a statement, even in the most evasive and non-committal terms, the flood gates will open to allow - shock horror - open debate.

Valium all round!

Meanwhile everyone in Carmarthenshire who plays bowls, cricket, football or rugby on council-owned pitches is digesting the news that charges for their use are set to rocket (tripling in the case of bowls to over £300 per year). This is urgently needed to eliminate a deficit of £250,000 in the annual maintenance costs.

Whether these dramatic belt tightening measures will be applied to the most expensive strip of turf in Carmarthenshire (no, not Garnant golf club) remains to be seen. Rumour has it that the suits and blazers from the Scarlets boardroom will now be showing up in the chamber with their sosban fawr on 21st October.

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The Llanelli Star has had a chat with the Wales Audit Office (report here) to try to find out what is likely to happen in the dispute between the auditors and Carmarthenshire County Council, and Caebrwyn has produced a very useful summary of the latest developments involving the local authorities in Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Caerphilly here.

The WAO's statement to the newspaper is hedged with a lot of ifs and buts, but in essence what it is saying is that if the council does not back down, the first step will be to issue public interest reports. Those would make public the auditor's findings. If that does not cause the council to blink, the WAO could go to court to get a ruling on the legality of the disputed libel indemnity and pension schemes.

Not mentioned for obvious reasons is that the auditor could go to the police, as has happened in the case of Caerphilly, to investigate whether there has been serious wrongdoing.

The upshot of all this seems to be that nothing is going to happen very soon, but it's worth speculating what could happen as the process grinds on.

For its part the council has already made it very clear that it does not consider that it has done anything wrong, and it has taken expensive legal advice to back up its position.

The WAO may also find it very difficult to back down in view of the stand it is taking in Caerphilly and Pembrokeshire. A decision not to go after Carmarthenshire would not only bring down a storm of criticism, but also compromise its case in the other authorities.

If the council were to blink and give in to the WAO, it would have to eat a municipal truckload of humble pie, and humble pie is never on the menu at County Hall. The Chief Executive would presumably also have to repay both the indemnity and the employer pension contributions he has received. Not much change left out of £40,000 there, although he should be able to afford it.

The cost to his own pocket and the personal humiliation involved mean that it is unlikely that the chief executive will simply roll over. The arguments deployed for fighting on are certain to include the following:

• The council has taken the best legal advice money can buy and is confident that it can carry the day.
• A re-hash of Meryl Gravell's "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" argument. A reversal of the pensions tax dodge would mean that Carmarthenshire would not be able to attract the best and brightest senior council officers. The problem with that, of course, is that 20 out of 22 Welsh councils saw no need to put such a scheme into place, but why should people who earn lots of money have to pay more tax?
• A surrender on the granting of indemnities to senior officers and/or councillors would leave innocent council officers and councillors open to abuse and terror campaigns by bloggers and others. The chief executive only undertook action against Jacqui Thompson to protect the weak and vulnerable. That was a fiction which was swallowed by the judge, of course, but as with the pensions issue, the arguments will ignore the fact that no other local authority in Wales has felt the need to go down this road.

The people the chief executive has to persuade are the members of the Executive Board, and it is unlikely that he will encounter much opposition from the Independents led by Pam Palmer and Meryl Gravell, both of whom bear a great deal of responsibility for the situation we now find ourselves in.

The situation in the Labour group is more problematic. The leader, Kevin Madge, approved both the indemnity and the pensions scheme, and as in the case of Pam and Meryl, there are very likely other skeletons in the Executive Boardroom closet.

Then there is the factional nature of the Labour group. Some may see this as an opportunity to ditch Kev.

There are others, but probably only a tiny handful, who are genuinely disgusted by the whole business, and will oppose a decision to fork out more money to fight court battles for the welfare of the chief executive.

The electoral maths means that Labour is also on a knife edge. The loss of a single councillor to Non-Aligned or Plaid would instantly give Pam Palmer a claim on Kev's job as council leader.

All of which makes the average game of Poker look a bit like a round of Old Maid down at the vicarage.

In theory a decision could be taken by the Executive Board without reference to the full council because these are delegated matters, but Plaid Cymru could table a motion calling on the council to accept the WAO's findings or even to suspend the chief executive pending further investigations.

In order for a motion to succeed, however, Plaid would need the support of both non-aligned councillors and at least 8 others from the ruling Labour/Independent coalition. Somehow, that seems unlikely to succeed.

As things stand, the most likely sequence of events is that the WAO will be forced to publish its public interest reports. The council will be given an opportunity to respond, and then both parties will troop off to court at some point in 2014, by which time Jacqui Thompson's appeal will be history (quite an attractive proposition from the council's point of view).

The downside from the council's perspective is that public opinion in Carmarthenshire would be outraged at the sight of its council spending huge sums of money on litigation for the benefit of the chief executive while it is cutting public services, such as playing fields and sports facilities (see the latest on that here).

Public opinion is not the chief executive's concern, of course, and Labour and the Independents may calculate that with nearly four years to go before they have to face the voters again, everything will have been forgotten by the time people head for the polling stations.

The only thing that could throw a spanner into the works is if there were to be a dramatic new development, such as the involvement of the police.

Any councillor or member of the public could go to the police and report their concerns. That does not guarantee that a police investigation would be launched, and having Dyfed Powys Police investigate a council on its own patch would be far from ideal.

Whatever happens, this one is set to run and run for a very long time to come.

And finally....

There is one interesting inaccuracy in the Llanelli Star's report. The Auditor says that the council spent £23,000 on the indemnity to counter-sue Jacqui Thompson, but Jacqui was ordered to pay over £40,000 in costs for that part of the case.

Cllr Jacob Williams has written another interesting piece on his blog. It seems that because Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire have fielded a joint legal team to deal with the WAO, councillors will be kept in the dark as to what the legal opinion is because that opinion is jointly owned. If Carmarthenshire refuses to give permission to Pembrokeshire to tell its councillors what is happening, elected representatives in Haverfordwest will just have to accept it. And vice versa, of course.

Surprise, surprise, no permission has been given.

In Pembrokeshire Labour is calling for the immediate suspension of the council chief executive because of the pensions scandal.

In Carmarthenshire where the chief executive is facing serious questions on more than one issue, Labour is no more likely to call for a suspension than turkeys would vote for Christmas.

CSI Carmarthen

Update

"A note to the accounts states: “Certain officers, including the chief executive, who would have been – and were – beneficiaries of the decision were present throughout the meeting to approve the salary increases. No declarations of interest were made and these officers did not leave the room while the decision was made. In doing do, they participated in the decision-making process."

No, it's Caerphilly this time, as reported by the Western Mail. Of course, nothing like that could ever happen in the best council in Wales, could it?

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News that the Appointed Auditor's mini digger turned up two corpses in the form of a dodgy pension scheme and the libel indemnity has led to speculation that there is more to come in Carmarthenshire. The difference between the two unlawful items of expenditure was that the taxpayer was done over in broad daylight in the case of the libel indemnity, whereas the foul deed involving employer pension contributions was committed in thick fog in the middle of the night.

Of one thing we can be certain: there are more bodies buried on Jail Hill.

In some cases we know at least some of the facts. The strange arrangement whereby the chief executive can pay himself advance expenses as returning officer without authorisation from the Executive Board, for example. The monitoring of e-mails sent by Cllr Caiach, for example. On the face of it, the council has powers to do this, but when we remember that Cllr Caiach was also a witness in a trial and that the subject matter of the e-mail was very closely related to the trial, things look much less wholesome.

There are also what look for all the world like attempts to intimidate whistle blowers, such as Delyth Jenkins; the cover-ups in the dreadful case of Mrs Trisha Breckman and her partner; the bullying of the local press; the pressure applied to get a journalist to withdraw an awkward freedom of information request on senior officer pay; the long and well documented use of the council's press office to attack critics and political opponents.

The list is a very long one and now stretches back years.

There is a further category of matters which emit a strong smell of rotting fish, but where evidence which could clear matters up has been kept firmly under lock and key. The peculiar relationship between the council and Towy Community Church, for example.

To quote Donald Rumsfeld,

"There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.

There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know.

But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know."

The Wales Audit Office's mini digger has a lot more work to do, and by all accounts events will soon take another dramatic turn.

Will Inspector Dai Knacker be asked to send in the sniffer dogs?

Watch this space.

Pensions and indemnities - where next?

It's been a busy week in Carmarthenshire, with more revelations about the shocking conduct of the top brass in Carmarthenshire County Council, and more questions than answers. Barring any new surprise developments, it seems likely that the fog will descend on Jail Hill once again while the lawyers and auditors meet behind closed doors and various investigations get underway.

The next date in the calendar is the monthly meeting of the full council on Wednesday, where the main subject up for debate is a motion attacking the Health Minister, Mark Drakeford (Lab), over the downgrading of the Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli.

Any councillors wishing to raise the subject of the auditor's report and the unlawful indemnity and pension payments are likely to find themselves immediately slapped down for straying from the agenda put together by the chief executive, and because the chief executive permanently removed Item 10 giving councillors the right to raise emergency matters at meetings last year, that avenue is also closed to them.

Readers who have been paying close attention may have spotted that both of the unlawful items of expenditure were approved as emergency items by the Executive Board. But what is sauce for the goose is definitely not sauce for the gander in County Hall.

You may think that this is a deliberate subversion of the democratic process designed to stifle debate and prevent elected councillors from holding the executive to account, and you would probably be right.

Further down the A40 in Pembrokeshire where councillors will shortly be debating a motion calling for the suspension of their chief executive pending the outcome of the investigations, the council top brass have been trying to spin the controversial pensions tax dodge.

Old Grumpy is on top form again when he contrasts a statement made by one of the cabinet members that "the tax man gains in each and every way" from this arrangement, with the minutes of the meeting which approved the scheme stating that the scheme had been devised to allow senior officers to avoid "a substantial tax liability".

All we have been told in Carmarthenshire so far, apart from claims that the scheme was OK'd by a QC and independent financial advisers, was that it was "difficult" for some people to remain in the local government pension scheme, while the minutes of the meeting which approved the scheme say only that the Executive Board noted changes to HMRC rules.

You may think that the Carmarthenshire minutes were deliberately opaque and misleading, and you would probably be right.

Old Grumpy also takes his council to task for use of the Local Government Act 1972 (Section 100) to place a public interest exemption on the report.

Public interest exemptions are like confetti in Carmarthenshire and used to hide all sorts of things from the public gaze, including proposals affecting public lavatories.

You may think that the exemption was improperly applied to ensure that embarrassing information and unlawful decisions did not become public, and you would probably be right.

You may also think that Carmarthenshire County Council had no good reason to treat the indemnity and pensions decisions as emergency items at its meetings, thereby avoiding drawing attention to them on published agendas.

Certainly that's what the WAO auditor thought about uncannily similar treatment of senior officer pay increases in Caerphilly, where the police were called in to investigate and the chief executive and his deputy were subsequently arrested.

The Wales Audit Office is very busy at the moment, what with one thing and another, but you may also think that they should spare a little time to investigate the arrangements which allow the council's chief executive to pay himself handsome advances for his work as Returning Officer.

Pertinent questions include who initiated the recommendations which resulted in this possibly unique arrangement.

If you think, as public spirited citizens, that these matters deserve proper scrutiny as a part of the Wales Audit Office's routine work, why not drop a line to the Auditor General for Wales asking him to investigate your concerns?

• Phone: 029 2032 0500
• E-mail: complaints@wao.gov.uk

Don't be put off if someone says that you should complain to the council first, because the council has already made its position clear that everything it did was in order. And don't waste your ink writing to the Carmarthen Journal because they will not print your letter. And even if they did, it would not make a scrap of difference. No, leave that to people who like tilting at wind turbines.

Finally, just think how grateful senior figures in the council will feel that you have helped to bring about an open and thorough investigation which could dispel any lingering nasty thoughts that people in Carmarthenshire may have about the way their council has been run.