Murky notes that during July 2020 accusations regarding the Tory Party and their activities first hit the headlines. It was to be the demise of the Tory Leader, the paramour Councillor Peter Jackson was deposed from Office by the joint forces of the LibDems, The Labour Party and the non-Bedlington Independents on the Council. The Bedlington Independents along with their Tory managers voted to retain a Leader whose administration had been accused of dodgy land dealings, lying, racism, bullying non payment of rates & Council tax among other nasty party issues, we have reproduced the e-mail that kickstarted this complete mess below.
A New Leader was brought in to the Council following the series of
revelations on the above matters in the Regional, National and Local press over
a period of weeks. That new leader was none other than the Lead Tory Peer for
the Local Government Association, representative of the National Parks and
wealthy Farmer, Councillor Glen Sanderson.
Yet from a man that is supposedly so experienced in Local Government
matters and issues, so much so that he is paid handsomely to teach other
Councils how to improve and better themselves he has sat back and let the nasty
sores growing on his parties members watching them sour and fester through his
complete silence.
Its been rumoured to Murky that Glen Sandersons officers are making
changes behind his back to completely control the Council in future and we ask
why then is it necessary to have elected members at all if they will have no
power to deliver on behalf of their public and that officers will have them
over a barrel constantly?
So Councillor Sanderson considering the above and the e-mail reproduced
below why have you not told us your public anything at all about the mess you
seem to be making worse? Where are your statements to keep us the public
informed?, whats happening with the investigations? And how many strings will
you be fitted with by Council officers to bring you to the stage and nod for
them?
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 30th 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 30th 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 30th 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
No comments:
Post a Comment