Council Chief ‘Retires’
Now this is an interesting one. Council chief executive Alan McCarthy is set to take early retirement, but that’s not quite how the story went originally. Initial reports on the Argus website stated that Mr. McCarthy had in fact resigned rather than retired, something opposition leader Gill Mitchell was quick to try and blame on the Tory administration, claiming that he could not work with them. Even ex-squatter, Lord Bassam, weighed in stating, “”What I worry about is the way in which the council seems to be politicising its officer appointments, when it should be the best person for the job.” Oh … excuse me! Labour have politicised every position it can find, even down to governorships of local schools (yes, there are strange little men who are governors of schools, such as St. Luke’s in Middle Street, who have never sired a child in their life, but just happen to be very active members of the local Labour Party).
Oh course Lord Bassam et al fails to identify any issue Messr. McCarthy is unhappy about which, to my mind, somewhat negates their argument.
This also raises another question – aren’t un-elected public servants such as Mr. McCarthy just meant to be carrying out the decisions of elected councillors rather than the other way around, the latter seeming to be the case in recent years? Interestingly, councillors are required to detail their interests ever year, but council officers are not. It’s incredible what one can find out with regard to top officers’ directorships and shareholdings if you care to dig around!
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