Sunday, August 12, 2007

Council Meeting 23rd July

I thought I would do something different following the last full Council meeting. This short film is the result. It took a while, hence the delay. Let me know what you think and whether it is worth doing more.

As well as the points in the film, we spent a little time discussing the recent flooding, though it will be a few more weeks until we have compiled all of the lessons learnt from the experience.

15 comments:

lisa said...

It's nice to see one of our elected reps talking to us for a change. well done Scully.

As for the "Totem poles" I can't believe this got through on the nod from the Liberal Democrats, what the hell were they thinking?

And how the hell did they get away with it Paul?

Anonymous said...

They got away with it because the don't have a clue how to spend large sums of money for the public good and because they have a majority in council.

I sure as hell won't be voting for the Lib dems next time. And I haven't voted Tory since Thatcher but I will next time.

Anonymous said...

Oh dear! Why didn't Cllr Scully have the honesty to admit that the deputy leader of the CONSERVATIVE party has also been awareded almost £6,000 per annum extra out of local tax-payers fund? Him and his group (I was at the council meeting that evening), cleverly voted AGAINST the rises which INCLUDED the extra allowance for the tory deputy, knowing full well that it would be defeated simply by a Lib-Dem majority. Some honesty in local politics wouldn't go amiss, and Scully and his cohorts have dismally failed on this one trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes, especially the pensioners. The words THE, SNOUTS, TROUGH, and IN come to mind.

Anonymous said...

As a St Helier Councillor, I reckon that big white building in the background (behind the Totem) is THE big issue. Its future has to be sorted ASAP

Anonymous said...

well isn't that the point that Scully is making?

Anonymous said...

Indeed, not decrying the sentiments of PS by any means. There is a danger though that the Hospital issue could be "submerged" if it is not kept on "top of the pile"

Anonymous said...

i totally agree, i just think it's a shambolic situation to have the council squandering that sum of money on these silly totems and giving themselves massive pay hikes while the hospital flounders. i'm not saying that the Lib Dems don't care and support the hospital but what kind of a signal does this send to people who can barely afford the bare necesseties?

Anonymous said...

p.s. Agree re Councillors allowances, would begin to worry if they were "hiked" up too much though, could lead to professional Councillors when we need vocational Councillors, i.e the allowance should be functional rather than excessive

p.p.s. In my 15 months in office, I have not come across any councillor of any party whose motivation involves "snouts and troughs" I think this is quite a naive attitude and perpetuates some old chestnuts that just worsen the perception of politicians and increase apathy in community involvement!

Anonymous said...

So your a councillor? Im playing devil's advocate here but wouldn't it be preferrable to have more professionalised councillors to avoid the good natured amateurism which leads to blunders like the above issues?

i do find it odd that people can be in a position to award their own 'pay' and increases. how can this be justified? you don't see it in business.

agree with you re bad perception of politicians, its a thankless job i would never want to do it but sometimes i think they make rods for their own backs by misnhandling issues like this pay increase

Anonymous said...

Independent Councillor for St Helier. In all fairness, there are arguments pro and anti the allowance payment system. A step up to, say £30-40k p.a. full time councillors may proclude the "concerned local resident" councillor and a new strata of "career" councillors who are, maybe, not so in touch with local affairs. Like the allowance payment system, its not perfect and, Im sure will evolve in due course

Anonymous said...

By the way, Cool video Paul!

Anonymous said...

sometimes i wonder what our councillors do for their allowances..i live in the beddington north ward & personally i have never seen my councillors. my wife saw them & hay guess what is was election time!!!!not impressed

my sister lives in the sutton south area and says his councillors are pretty good..

i dont care what party my councilors are & i'm not sure what to go by but i am definately unimpressed by my lot. in my view if you pay peopl the quents they should do the job

simon

Anonymous said...

They just love spending our money!

Anonymous said...

Dear Hubert
Honesty is obviously a word yuou have never heard of or really understand the meaning of.If you had really been at the meeting(3 people in the public gallery) you would know that the main point of contention was the retrospective payments to Hall and Dombey for last years deputys allowances,£6000 each if i am not mistaken on top of their other allowances which take them up to nearly £30k.
Now i dont mind that as long as they are taking their responsibilities seriously.
What do i discover today...
Not only is Sean Brennan on holiday at mom but from the 24th of August so are Cllrs Hall and
Dombey. Therefore Cllr Brett Young will be at the helm.
Will he want a retrospective payment for this work?
Is it not possible for the leader and deputies to arrange a rota where at least one of them is not on holiday or do they need to spend that extra £6k so quickly on a nice holiday.
So come on Hubert lets get a grip of the word HONESTY which you obviously didnt learn the meaning of at school that is if you went to one.....

Anonymous said...

I would like to say fair play to Agent Scully for bringing these UFOs (Unbelievable-Financial-Opulence) to the public domain!

Call me old fashioned, but isn't it a little beyond the pale for serving councillors to vote themselves lump-sums from the public purse?

I'd like to associate myself with the comments from 'Timmo' above, as it seems the dubious justification for this scandalous payment has now been blown out of the water!!!

How many more Liberal Democrat party councillors are going to sink their financially vampiric teeth into the seemingly limitless generosity of us the TAXPAYERS!!!

They've whacked the council tax up AGAIN and feel they need a payrise for the effort!

The truth is out there...