Why County Councillor Peter Jackson should go

 

Its another witch-hunt!

Murky witch hunting appears to be commonly practiced at County Hall in Morpeth, a female Councillor from the North of this massive County mentions it on a regular and ongoing basis particularly on social media.

Lately the unnamed Councillor’s attention has turned towards the criticism of symbolism and secret signage almost akin to fire raising into ones mindset that flaming crosses should block the path of those who defend the patriarchal society we live in and men, (we don’t know if thats all men or just politicians) should avoid the house containing six black cats.

This obvious difficulty in her thought processes may not be so far off becoming a cauldrons brew of reality as in most societies the witch is a wise women so for this story we believe that her misunderstandings of the past have been born out of a lack of match practice with the pentangle and not complete malicious madness. So in parking the broomstick and moving back towards mother earth we should look at whats being said across the murky universe whose ley lines converge at County Hall.

The politics within the County of Northumberland has suffered some of the dirtiest tactics ever invented with the ruling administration top of the list for crucifixion of their enemies and temper tantrums that flare into violence if orders and commands are not met with relish and gusto by those employed to be their henchmen or in the current case henchperson! Whatever the cost to the Counties residents the damage must be total annihilation of peoples characters and livelihoods and its happened to dozens.

Currently the CEX of the County Council is both the messenger, judge and executioner but its become clear that she is to suffer a similar fate to her victims in the forthcoming days as her useful ‘end in nigh’.

The question that sits on everyone’s lips ‘but is it fair’?

The County Council Leader seems from the information passed to us to have fallen out with the CEX who from the words above you should have gleaned that it’s a women and a women of some substance to boot, fearsome and an attitude like Boudicca who has worked hard for what she has achieved so we don’t expect she will give up without a heroic battle, but does the fair sex stand a chance against a patriarchal society who’s business is resolved behind closed doors. Her hearing is in front of three men, archaic in itself and a public fight has already begun as she is black and her accusers are not, with the majority of those hearing her appeal from the same political party as the Leader it will be difficult for her to achieve a fair hearing.

To confuse matters further the Black Lives Matter debate has been thrown in to cloud the issue for many by the current administration and a leaked non confidential e-mail has shown why the accusers should not be near this case. Other Councillors have tried in vane to force a special meeting to be held to discuss the matters openly that are contained within Council messages and emails to ensure fairness overrules temper tantrums and that the eventual outcome will achieve value for money for Northumberland’s residents but to no avail. The steamroller of right wing politics in Northumberland will crush the possible saviours of the CEX before an unbiased word is uttered in her defence.

The message that shows how low the current administration has fallen from grace and why the external auditor and the police need to be all over this matter sits below.

Please look at this with an open mind because too many closed ones are already lining up to ensure that you our readers don’t fear the destruction of your services by those who use power for less than the correct, honest and reputable reasons and make certain the Councils reputation doesn’t recover for decades whoever’s next in power.

Message

Daljit Lally GCSX <daljit.lally@northumberland.gov.uk>         27 July 2020 at 22:00
Peter Jackson <peter.jackson@northumberland.gov.uk>
Wayne Daley <wayne.daley@northumberland.gov.uk>

Hello Peter thanks for your email. It is helpful that you have articulated your understanding of the meeting as I have a different recollection and perspective on a number of the issues you have raised.

The meeting this morning was at your request following the issues of concern I raised with you last week. I provided you with some context in relation to the emails that you quoted to me when requesting todays meeting.

I raised with you my whistleblowing concerns about the actions of two cabinet members specifically and my well documented concerns about the Advance managing director Ken Dunbar and the lack of willingness to address my concerns, some of which include potentially illegal behaviour and also your subsequent reticence to act on the concerns that I have repeatedly raised.

The two member issues I raised are as follows.

Firstly I raised the issues of concern about Councillor John Riddle who as I have previously advised you previously in one or two meetings and again in out one to one meetings in March this year has sought to seek the purchase by the Council of land in which I am led to believe he has a financial interest and also  continues to seek confidential information and inappropriate social services action via myself and Cath McAvoy social services action in relation to his son and grandchild. I detailed these concerns on both these matters to you and I have not had a satisfactory response. I also raised Councillor Riddels inappropriate comments to me.

Secondly I raised my continuing concerns about the issues relating to your personal relationship with Councillor Homer. When I raised the monitoring officer guidance that I sent you about declarations you did not deny the relationship but you were clear that you were unwilling to comply with the advice of the monitoring officer.

At our meeting this morning I set out some of my concerns via a whistleblowing disclosure about Cllr Homer’s behaviour towards staff and in some ways your behaviour towards staff clearly in conjunction with Cllr Homer, this has included discriminatory behaviour and the fact that I have had to put in place specific support arrangements for staff (including myself) due to the stress we are being put under.

You stated to me you had a number of issues to raise with me indicating that I was not performing in my role. I found the latter statement very surprising as you have never raised any performance issues or concerns either at our regular briefing meetings with members  or when I pressed for examples of the issues you were referring to so I could respond to them or put them to the executive team to ask for responses as is our usual process with any enquiries you make you really struggle to coherently articulate any issues. As I have always said I have no issue if members need to resolve issues as that really is the only mway we will get issues sorted out.

The issues you raised were:

Heads of service being prevented from speaking to cabinet members
My response to you was:
I asked if this was Glenn Sanderson as I have clearly previously arranged for local services heads of service’s to provide written notes as part of their performance. You will recall you agreed to the instigation of the notes when you said you and Glen Sanderson wanted David Laux dismissed. You will also recall that I said staff can’t just be dismissed at a whim and that a record of their meetings would be required to determine if  there were any performance issues that could be looked at and acted upon.. You stated that it was not Glen but Councillor Riddle who was being prevented from meeting the Director of planning. As I said this morning I was not aware of Rob not meeting with Cllr. Riddle and that I would raise this with Juliemma. Having thought about it this afternoon I have however considered that it might be Rob being careful about meeting with Cllr. Riddle given Cllr. Riddle’s track record of making inappropriate requests of planning officers. An issue of concern I have raised with you before.

Bedlington Leisure facility and your false allegation that I was withholding information from you only my response to you was:
I advised you that I was aware that yourself and Cllr. Homer have made political promises to a member of Bedlington Independent group but that I am duty bound to act in line with the budget that the Council has set and following Neil Bradley’s the £250k you then promised the member for the development would actually need £3.3m which are unbudgeted for and cannot demonstrate VFM. I said I was happy to share the report Neil has drafted but it has not been agreed through the usual officer process. I also stated subsequently Cllr. Wearmouth has asked Juliemma to take forward  the development via a town centre gym it would be helpful if you could advise which scheme you want to pursue and I will advise Juliemma of the correct course of action.

Seaton Delaval school site and your false accusation that I was seeking to purchase land. The rather odd issue that you raised that I was seeking to purchase land to redevelop the school. As I advised you this morning this is a clearly false accusation that you were making. I advised you of the most recent dialogue that I have had with Cllr Daley and Cath McAvoy and I am sure you will check that out and find my comments to you are factually correct. I must say I am very concerned about theses false accusations that you made particularly as you appear to have based them on false information which you could have checked at the housing board last Friday.

Performance Reporting
You raised concern that performance is not being reported to cabinet members. As I stated to you the cabinet and execs meet very regularly. The execs have evidenced that to me regularly in writing. The issue you raised of the report is as I have stated i.e. the report is ready but we were holding it until Cllr Sanderson could leave his harvesting to join in the informal cabinet meeting which is what you said you wanted. If you change your mind the report can be brought next week to JC.

Appraisal
You indicated that I had not completed an appraisal. This is incorrect. I drafted my objectives and passed them to you for comment. Unfortunately you failed to complete the assessment template, comment on the objectives and you failed to attend the agreed meeting with Sir James to discuss them.

After the above issues you again said you have issues and I asked what they were. As you appeared to be able to articulate these issues I stated maybe it was the elephant in the room which was clearly which was clearly resulting from Cllr Homer’s inappropriate and discriminatory behaviour to myself and other staff members and it was may view that issues were not being dealt with because of your close relationship and the influence Cllr. Homer is exerting is the reason you are asking me to leave my job and that the potential of bias really needed to be considered as I was being detrimented by her and your actions. I advised you there were numerous other concerns that myself and some other members of the staff team have raised or would wish to raise particularly your behaviour and that of Councillor Homer and that I would be more than happy to share the information as the behaviour is inappropriate. Some examples that I cited include unagreed use of resources in a manner targeting advantage to Cllr Homer’s preferences rather than needs based spend on her ward area including your insistence to develop Hexham Middle school even though it is not in council ownership, pressure to purchase a Hexham site outwith its valuation and preference to spend on Cllr Homer’s portfolio rather than based on appropriate need.

You were clearly unhappy about the advice you have received about declaring that relationship and that potential bias was being evidenced.

I stated I was more than happy to continue working in the unbiased way that I have as I was just seeking to do my job well. You then stated you have taken advice from the LGA about asking me to leave the Council due to my not performing. When asked about ahta specific advice you had sought you said “about this”. I believe you were referring to one email which you described as curt. I advised you the email was polite and professional. I then stated the issues that you have asked about have all been appropriately responded to, these include the structure of the organisation and preparation for my role as interim head of NOCTA in January 2021.

I asked you if you were asking me to leave my job with the Council and you said yes you were and that it was not just yourself and that you had agreed with your cabinet just as I was raising issues on behalf of the executive team. You said that I had asked to leave some weeks ago and I said we have often joked about you being out of a job after the election and possibly myself too. At no time have I resigned as you put it in your email below and I would ask that in any discussion you have with cabinet members about forcing me from my role as you are doing via this email you need to make it clear to cabinet members that I have not at any time offered my resignation.

I did say that as you were asking me to leave my role in the Council that there is due process to follow via the monitoring officer which is in a report to the staffing committee followed by a report to full council. I asked if you wanted me to ask the monitoring officer to arrange the staffing committee and you said no you would seek further advice from the LGA. I’m presuming you have taken that advice and hence your email to me below. I would reiterate that I have not resigned my role and should you feel you have written evidence that you should provide it to me by return. Also if you are now suggesting that our conversation of 30^th June was seriously questioning my continued employment with the Council I would have expected to have been offered the courtesy of representation both there and today accordingly.

I am disappointed to have received your email below as the context of our discussion is entirely distorted. Since the brief discussion of 30^th June we have had many face to face discussions, video calls in the presence of others which have been very positive. Most recently our briefing last week where we discussed the issues listed on that agenda. I am unsure what is obvious in determining yourself as leader and myself as CEO has deteriorated to a level as I believe my email responses are professional and business like and it would be helpful if you could outline on which occasions you feel I have deliberately undermined you in front of senior officers and or members. The allegations of bullying are statements based on examples where members have spoken to/emailed staff (including myself) inappropriately.

I am also disappointed that you are now suggesting to me in writing that my performance as CEO is not acceptable. This is the first occasion you have stated this and I would now suggest that you enact the councils performance management process so that we can both be clear on the expected level and outcomes of performance and behaviour.

I am clear I do not have any intention of resigning from my role if however you wish to enact the disciplinary process regarding my statutory role as CEO I suggest you seek formed advice in this regard.

I would like to make it clear that I do not believe that you have grounds to discipline me or question my performance as the CEO. The council has had many successes since I was appointed and it is to the testament of the Executive team and the senior leadership that they are now regarded as high performing and nationally well regarded.

I entirely accept that you and your cabinet set out the strategic direction of the Council and the operationalisation of that and subsequent delivery of that is my responsibility along with the executive team.

If you are now suggesting that our conversation of 30^th June was seriously questioning my continued employment with the council, I would have expected to have been offered the courtesy of representation both then and today accordingly.

I appreciate you are now suggesting we need to find a constructive way forward and that you have decided to write to the LGA to ask for the option of formal independent mediation. I am unclear on what basis you are requesting mediation e.g. my employment relationship etc., therefore I would expect this to be clarified in due course.

I would expect all discussions and correspondence to remain business like however where you are proposing to discuss any aspect of my employment I must insist on having representation at any future meetings.

In relation to future meetings I will ask the Deputy Leader and Deputy Chief Executive to be present at my meeting and notes to be taken and any requests for information to be clearly articulated in writing by cabinet members and with agreed timescales.

As you are aware I have notified the deputy leader Cllr Daley of our discussions today as you informed me that you were acting on behalf of the cabinet. I now understand that this was not the case.

I would also make you aware that my employment is through also through a formal joint contract with the NHS and should you take steps to terminate this with or without good reason you should notify Sir James Mackey.

At no point in our discussion today did you indicate our meeting today was confidential so I will advise you that I will share the discussion as necessary.

Also as I was concerned that you were recording our last conversation I would be clear with you that that you do not have my permission to record todays conversation or in fact any previous subsequent conversations so if you have done so please provide me with written assurances whether you have or have not and provide me with a copy of the audio by return.

Apologies for the lateness of my reply but I did not get home from work until after 7pm. I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Mrs Daljit Lally
Chief Executive
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
NE61 2EF