Small business owners don't always make good big business leaders

picture credit: www.banffcentre.ca

Mr Mustard's alter ego runs a small business, he is not sure he could run a big one as different skills are needed.

Richard Cornelius runs a small business (and very well at that if profit is your guide; he improved the reserves of Cornelius & Davies Ltd from £403,021 to £867,411 in the year ended 30 November 2010. That is a profit after all expenses of £464,390 in a year. Don't buy jewellery; it is all profit!) Richard does not appear to need the money from being the Council "leader" unless he is trying to buy Old Masters or something, like this one which recently sold for $250m.

filling in time before a committee meeting.

Now Mr Mustard thought when Richard Cornelius was appointed as "Leader" last year that we might see a change of direction and that we would see some old school financial management and common sense. Mr Mustard was, sadly, completely wrong and now we have a "Leader" who doesn't lead and who has no vision.

This was brought home to Mr Mustard on Monday evening at the premiere of "A Tale of Two Barnets" a film which Cornelius has slated despite not having seen it. Now Mr Mustard may not be very good in front of a camera but at least he has something to say and knows what drives him and where he is going. Just watch this short clip, Cornelius is at the end of the clip, it's only a minute or so long:

Now Mr Mustard tries to be fair. He thought that the footage of Mr Cornelius's ideas must have ended up on the cutting room floor and so he wrote to Mr Cornelius to ask him what ideas he had. Here is the email.

Dear Cllr Cornelius

I am sure you will recall taking part in the above film.

I note from the final part of this trailer ( top item on this link ) that you were not sure that there was anything you could change about Barnet.

I do not believe that you did not then go on to list all of the things about Barnet that you, as leader, wanted to change.

Could you please enlighten me as to what they were?

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

You have to give Mr Cornelius a mark for effort as he replied straightaway but he gets nothing for content.

---

Dear Mr Mustard

I do remember being interviewed.  I do not remember all that I said and how I said it but I can re-assure you that the things that I would like to try and change would be those, that most people would wish to improve.

Richard

---

That was no answer at all and also opened the door for Mr Mustard to tell Mr Cornelius, and he hopes that he got the selection about right on behalf of "most people", what most people want.

Dear Mr Cornelius

Thank you for your brief reply.

I have come to the conclusion, since you would most like to change what most people would like to change, the thing I would most like to change, is you (as "Leader" that is).

I am not entirely sure, however, that you are the most urgent case for replacement as there is a close run battle at the top of my league table of "What is wrong with Barnet", to replace/remove/change:

Brian Coleman
the parking payment method (bring back the meters & our own traffic wardens)
the parking tariff
the fairer contributions policy (a misnomer if ever I heard one)
One Barnet and all the attendant overpaid consultants and the hundreds of temporary staff
don't allow private events in public parks
Nick Walkley
Andrew Travers and all the other Town Hall Tax Dodgers

the lack of cycling infrastructure

stop expanding the borough population by 1% p.a. and the attendant horrible buildings

keep Friern Barnet library

re-open Church Farmhouse Museum

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

The press office will now be tearing their hair out, oh well. Mr Mustard forgot to put down the emasculation of Residents Forums but he can add those in if he gets another response, which doubtless will be drafted by someone else on behalf of Mr Cornelius. If another response does arrive Mr Mustard will be sending a much expanded email which dissects every one of the above policies in fine detail, and he will bring the exchange to you on this blog.

Now should Mr Cornelius be reading this he needs to ask himself why he is the "Leader", how he is making Barnet a better place and whether the light is worth the candle?

At the moment you are the corniest joke going Mr Cornelius. Your tenure has been brief but your legacy will be nothing at all so why not step aside and let a younger man/woman have a go (someone with drive, vision, energy, intelligence, enthusiam, ability - what's that, oh an email from Mrs Angry - stop being silly Mr Mustard there isn't anyone ...)

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Pettifogging

The "leader" of the council has the gall to talk about pettifogging procedures and yet he is in favour of PayByPhone parking which requires motorists to negotiate what is often reported as a slow and difficult system - Richard Wilson tried it and struggled. 

The system to buy vouchers on the council's website is a long way from the slickness of Amazon or John Lewis. 

What is pettifogging anyway? It's one of those words which people think they understand and possibly don't. Here is what my dictionary says:-

Assuming the leader wasn't talking about legal deception then he must have been talking about petty points.

Let Mr Mustard reflect. If the security contract had been properly filled under EU procurement rules then we wouldn't have had MetPro who didn't have:-

Criminal Records Bureau Checks

Security Industry Association registration

A contract with the council

An agreed sepcification

An agreed schedule of rates

A process for mornitoring performance

more deficiences could be listed but you get the picture.

Then 6 months later history repeated itself with the Parking Meter removal contract being given to RM Countryside Services in breach of the council's rules on procurement and the contract now having to be tendered again properly.

Mr Mustard doesn't think that any of the above is petty and is rather surprised that the "leader" does.

Rules are needed because if not poor value is obtained and the process is open to corruption.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Follow my leader ( into obscurity? )

Follow My Leader

This game is widely played among the Indian tribes, particularly by the boys, and also by the girls. The Leader improvises the steps and the movements, which all who follow must repeat and keep time to the song. The song here given is traditional in the Omaha tribe. It has been handed down from one generation of young folk to another—for how many, "nobody knows."

The Game

A Leader is chosen, and all who join in the game must go where he goes, dance as he dances, move the arms, hands and feet as he does. The skipping and dancing must be in exact time with the song that all must sing. The game gives opportunity for fancy steps, winding, intricate figures, "cutting capers" and merry pranks.

Song

Follow my Leader where'er he goes;

What he'll do next, nobody knows.

Mr Mustard doesn't only point out shortcomings at the Council; he likes also to be helpful and to write to officers and councillors suggesting money-saving and/or face-saving ideas and in the case of the Leader, Cllr Richard Cornelius, the opportunity for him to show some leadership on what has turned out to be a very controversial measure; "cashless parking". That is an idea which is fine in principle but flawed in practice especially when sledgehammered into being rather than slowly & subtly drifted into place as times change. It is an example of how the populace are expected to bend to the will of the council whereas the council proclaim that they are Putting the Community First. You are allowed a hollow laugh at that phrase.

Given that the tendering procedure for the removal of the parking meters has not been properly carried out it should be run again and RM Countryside Ltd would be well advised not to kick up a fuss bearing in mind that they get the vast majority of their work from the council ( in contravention of the Constitution ).

So Mr Mustard will now share with you his short exchange of emails with the Leader Cllr Cornelius ( verbatim except that as usual Mr Mustard has been substituted for my real name )

The email subject was "How to be a Hero"


Friday, 2 December 2011

Dear Councillor Cornelius

Are you fed up with hearing about parking payment problems? Almost everyone is.

You are the Leader. You can fix this mess. Look at New York

Look at that lovely parking meter that takes cash and cards. Parkeon are one of the suppliers to Barnet Council.

Has anyone asked Parkeon if the current machines, which appear to be modular in design, can be adapted. I'll bet they can. Sure it will cost a few quid but £80,000 is being spent on removing and scrapping some perfectly good working machinery.

You will still need to employ some cash collection officers but, as more and more people use cards because it is convenient when the slot is there next to them ( like in Westminster as well as New York )the need to empty the meters so often will diminish.

Have you looked at Big Society ways of dealing with the machines? How about having a team of shop-keepers in each location to empty them each day? A small commission to the traders for providing that service or placed in a special fund to improve their town centre?

There must be a better way than the current one which has been poorly thought out and is being badly implemented.

So, what is it to be? Hero or Zero?

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

---

Sunday, 4 December 2011

Dear Mr Mustard,

Thank you for your email.  I do not think that there is any future in the machines and now that we are developing the scratchcard option I feel that a lot of the objections to the pay by phone system will disappear.

Richard Cornelius

---

The next email had a small change in title. It was "How not to be a hero"

Monday 5 December 2011

Dear Cllr Cornelius

Thank you for your short reply which is very disappointing.

I have seen the 4 page wraparound on the Barnet Times. I see that there will now be 2 voucher values available, £1 for 30 minutes and £2 for 1 hour which can be used in multiples to purchase more parking time. That may well be fine in the 1 hour zones ( if you have planned in advance and don't mind paying £8 for possibly your one and only visit to the borough of Barnet ) but here in High Barnet where the hours are from 8am to 6.30pm a visitor without a mobile telephone will need to purchase 10 one hour vouchers and a 30 minute voucher if they need to stay all day which at face value is £21. That will in effect mean that they will need to buy 12 ( 3 packs of four ) vouchers at £2 = £24 whereas in the Stapylton Rd car park the maximum daily charge is £5. ( Only 20m away in Strafford Rd the daily charge is, strangely, £7 )

If you went to the pub ( I don't know if you drink but please bear with me ) and ordered a round and the barman said "you have to pay by credit card for that round sir, this is a cashless bar, the charge is £7" and you said "oh sorry, I am afraid I haven't got my credit card on me" and the barman then said "that's all right sir, we take drinks vouchers which you buy on-line from the council in books of 4 at £2 each; however the cash price for your round is £21 so that will be £24 of vouchers you need to buy", I think you would leave and find a bar in another town. Please feel free to tell me that I am completely wrong.

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

---

Mr Mustard isn't expecting to hear anything else as Cllr Cornelius has made his mind up, or had it made up for him? He says he listens but then he doesn't act. Not much point in listening then, is there?

Shopkeepers; you can act. If this man comes into your shop please double, treble or quadruple your prices.

Happy days; thinking of his free park anywhere in Barnet permit

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. 

Have fun.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Cllr. Cornelius - Out of touch not "in touch"

Accountants are alleged to be boring but the CIPFA conference certainly wasn't yesterday.

LGCplus had it all covered as you would expect. 

Mr Mustard was also delighted to hear from a Councillor from another London Borough who was at the conference and is probably pleased that Mr Mustard is safely ensconced in Barnet.

Now Mr Mustard is a fan of Mr Pickles and has written to him in the past, but Mr Pickles may not have realised this as Mr Mustard ( a fictional character ) used the name of his real alter ego so it wasn't as if Mr Mustard had been currying ( sorry, too many condiments ) favour.

Mr Pickles speaks in a very plain way and also has walked the walk as he was previously the Leader of Bradford Council so Mr Mustard doesn't expect that Cllr. Cornelius will have stopped Mr Pickles in his tracks and have him issuing an apology for telling the truth. Here is the draft of the entire speech ( the odd word or line may have been changed on the day ) obtained from the

www.communities.gov.uk website with some comments by Mr Mustard in red.

Many happy returns to CIPFA on its one hundred and twenty fifth annual meeting - celebrating century and a quarter of leadership, education and advocacy on behalf of public finance professionals.
It's appropriate that a grand anniversary should coincide with a momentous time for your members.
Because public finance professionals are facing a moment which calls on all their skills, expertise, and entrepreneurial zeal.
This Government inherited Britain's biggest ever peacetime deficit.
Getting public spending back within sustainable levels is non-negotiable.
You only have to look at the turmoil in Europe to see the alternative.
And let's be clear, whatever the outcome of last year's election, the Government would have been reducing public spending.
No-one is under any illusion about the scale of the challenge that adapting to tight budgets presents.
And don't be in any doubt that looking very closely at the quarter of public spending represented by local government was and is vital.  I want to thank you for your hard work.
But every stage we've sought to protect the most vulnerable.
And - as you know well - despite what certain parts of the media might suggest, the money hasn't somehow vanished into thin air.
Councils have £53bn of spending power this year.
£53bn to control and spend as they see fit, procuring local services.
But when taxpayers are looking hard at their own family budgets, it's even more important to make every penny of that money work as hard as it possibly can. ( Maybe not spend it on Fireworks Barnet )
So what you do.
Getting the basics right. Counting every penny. Getting more for less. Has never mattered more. ( The Basics i.e. not OneBarnet )
And you play the vital role of helping councils look not to short-term fixes, but long-term reform.
Trimming a corner here and there in the hope that things will go back the way is not a route to the sunlit uplands but to a cliff edge.
The right response to tight budgets is to innovate. To provide services in a different way. To transform them.
Now it feels like we've been talking about this for years.
Before Sir Philip Green there was Sir Michael Lyons, before him there was Sir Peter Gershon.
We've aced the theory. Some councils are getting on with the practical.
Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire have begun sharing legal, IT and HR services, cutting costs by more than a million pounds each year.
Six councils, including Cornwall and Dorset, have joined forces with the Environment Agency to reduce the admin costs on their pension funds. They estimate that they could cut overheads by around ten per cent. And on this topic, I'm grateful to CIPFA for the work your pensions panel has been doing with my Department to improve financial management across the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Meanwhile Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster are looking to save thirty-five million pounds and improve services by bringing together the front line.
I'm not saying change is easy. If it were easy, every council would be doing it already.
But these places show it can be done.
And the best councils are never content. They keep asking themselves the hard questions.
Such as: are we doing all we can to crack down on fraud?
Cheshire East Council investigated and found that nearly two thousand people had wrongly claimed council tax benefit. That investigation is helping them recover up to half a million pounds.
Councils are asking themselves - are we procuring in the most intelligent possible way?
Leeds City Council have held "procurement open days." ( Oh dear, that procurement question just won't go away )
Hillingdon, like many other Boroughs, use the "London Tenders Portal" to invite suppliers to bid on-line.
And here in Birmingham, the council has been using e-auctions for some years: helping firms large and small, from national names to local social enterprises, understand what services and goods are needed, and giving the council the option of choosing from a wide range of quotes.
And councils are asking themselves, are we managing our assets as sensibly as we can?
Lancashire County Council have moved to flexible working, and in doing so have been able to rationalise their office space, saving over one million pounds each year and cutting carbon emissions.
All of these examples show that with your expertise. Your understanding. Your leadership. Councils can make the leap to smarter, more effective ways of working.
So as we look ahead, we want to give you more scope to show that leadership. More scope to put your expertise to good use.
In order to make localism a reality, greater legal freedom needs to go hand in hand with greater freedom over finances.
In this first year we've started down the road. Radically cut ring-fencing. Freed up £2.1  billion from restrictions, comparing this financial year to last.
And simplified over 90 separate funding streams to fewer than 10.
This is just a small start. We are poised to go much further.
Our review of local government resourcing has looked at how we can restore freedom and accountability to a local level. Our starting point is that local funding should be more and more a local issue, determined by local initiative.
In the first stage of the review, we have confirmed that we will repatriate business rates. No more councils forced to come to Treasury with a begging bowl.
Let's be clear, we will make sure that more deprived areas continue to receive support and receive proper reward for the growth they generate.
But I am determined that councils should see a link between the success of local firms and the state of their own coffers.
Giving them even stronger reasons to work in partnership with the private sector. Even stronger reasons to create the conditions for enterprise for flourish.
Following the Localism Bill currently before the Lords, there will be a Local Government Finance Bill to put the local retention of business rates into practice and introduce Tax Increment Financing.
But if our work on business rates is about giving you greater control over the money you collect… our work on community budgets is about giving you greater control over the money that flows from central government.
Councils from Hull to Salford have led the way with the first round of community budgets, looking at problem families.
That is, the one hundred and twenty thousand or so families across the country who account for more than their fair share of calls on the police, the probation service, truancy officers, social workers, and A+E.
Instead of asking a dozen different people in a dozen different agencies, each in their own little room, to think about those families, let's bring those services together.
Giving a better result for those families. A better result for the communities they live in.
Now I think we've seen some great work, and some innovative approaches, with that first wave of community budgets.
But with the next phase, we want to be even more ambitious.
We'll be inviting two neighbourhoods, at a very local level, and two councils, on a bigger geographic scale, to put all public funding for local services into a single pot.
Then letting how services are designed and delivered be dictated not by the shape of Whitehall funding streams, and not by Ministerial command, but by what really counts: what local people want. ( Now that would be interesting in Barnet, probably every decision made by Councillors reversed starting with the increase in allowances, and every OneBarnet consultant back to where they came from )
And though we are starting on a small scale with these pilots, make no mistake.
This is the shape of things to come.
Local control over cash as the norm; not the exception.
If this is our offer to you, then this is our expectation: with greater local financial freedom must come greater local accountability.
You know my thoughts on the Audit Commission. An organisation that had, over time, become a creature of Whitehall, rather than a champion of local taxpayers. Intent on imposing Whitehall's ideology on councils - with gold stars for those who ticked the most boxes.
But it also lost sight of its own mantra - "protecting the public purse".  It is often the small things that speak volumes.
How can we have confidence in a spending watchdog which has held its Board meetings in an Oyster Bar to discuss 'improving corporate governance', and then lost the receipt for the £800 bill?
Or which was spending £1,500 a year on flowers for the reception of its Millbank office - which only stopped in September 2010. Didn't they sense the urgency of the Emergency Budget?
Spending watchdogs and district auditors are (in) no position to lecture councils on financial probity - if they themselves don't care about delivering value for money and protecting taxpayers' cash.
Now, we have published our proposals for the future of local government audit, and we will be looking carefully at your responses to this consultation.
Let's be absolutely clear, we need, and will always need, skilled professionals to oversee the efficient, effective and proper use of taxpayers' money.
I welcome the report by the Select Committee today - which finds that our proposals are "…consistent with […] wider moves to localism and greater financial independence for local government."
We'll now be refining our proposals, looking carefully at that report, and your responses to consultation.
But it's also clear that council finances should be much more open and accountable to local taxpayers. ( Bloggers are also taxpayers )
After all, it's their money. In other words: greater local financial control must go hand in hand with greater openness to local scrutiny. Extra scrutiny can help identify and eliminate duplication and waste. ( Like the May Gurney bonus of £889,000 )
Take the example of Islington. An independent audit of just 30 of the council's top 500 suppliers found that many invoices had even been paid two or even three times over, and four out of ten suppliers had no formal contract. Spending transparency - and the act of collating date for online publication - helps drive out inefficiency, and exposes waste to the light of day. ( No formal Contract. Even better in Barnet, no Contract at all - MetPro )
I'm not making a political point here, by the way. This isn't about political control. Too often, councillors are left in the dark. ( Nor is Mr Mustard; he is only concerned about finance and democracy. Councillors also need to come out of the shadows themselves. )
I was shocked by a recent case in Barnet. The council had hired a private security firm, MetPro, which included "keeping an eye" on local bloggers - at a cost of over a million pounds. The contract had been awarded without a tendering exercise, without a written contract, and no proper invoicing. An internal audit showed there "serious deficiencies in current procurement arrangements", and there were no guarantees that against a repeat of such practices. ( Mr Mustard is with you there Mr Pickles - Mr Mustard was flabbergasted & outraged )
Irony of ironies - this misuse of public money was uncovered thanks to the determination of local bloggers and activists, including Barnet Eye, Mr Mustard, and Mrs Angry (as she had every right to be.) Exactly the same people MetPro snooped upon. ( the Barnet Eye & Mrs Angry deserve most of the credit - Mr Mustard was late to the party )
I've got news for Barnet. Liveblogging from council meetings. Microjournalism. Call it what you like. It's here to stay. In fact this citizen samizdat - local people reporting on their local council's triumphs and shortcomings - is the perfect counterblast to town hall Pravdas. ( Listen to that bad news Barnet - maybe it is time to start working with us bloggers rather than using uncomplimentary terms ? )
And it's going further. The next wave of transparency after publishing spending over £500, will be councils publishing contracts and tenders over £500 online as well.
An online list of council contracts will prevent a repeat of the likes of Islington or Barnet, and will spur on greater competition and efficiency. ( At present that will probably only take half a side of A4 in Barnet )
It doesn't just strengthen the hand of citizens.  It strengthens the hand of ward councillors, letting them know what officials are doing on their behalf. ( Councillors also need to start asking more questions and not taking what Officers say as the truth - see my blog post "Economical with the truth" )
That's why, looking over the Welsh border, I think Carmathen Council were out of line in having a local blogger arrested for the offence of videoing a public council meeting.
It was immensely short-sighted, too. ( Councils really shouldn't try and set rules for Public meetings. If the public isn't throwing rotten tomatoes then a bit of heckling or filiming or tweeting isn't going to hurt
Because if councils can show that they can deliver what local people want, and respond to their communities, without relying on instructions, it undermines the centre's need to control. It paves the way for further localism still. ( When you get it right Barnet Council there will be nothing to read in the blogs )
So paradoxically - I think one of Whitehall's important jobs now is help councils behave in ways, which, in the long term, mean we need a bit less of Whitehall.
For example: as you know, councils must by law hold a financial open day, throwing wide their books and inviting local people to examine them - deeds, contracts, vouchers, bills and receipts - the lot.
I intend to collate a central list of the dates of those open days and publish it. So that it's easy for everyone, everywhere, to know when they can examine what their local council has been spending their hard-earned on.
I applaud those councils who have already let my Department know the date of their open day.  Those councils not on the list will be conspicuous by their absence.  So do let us know - we are here to help.
And I applaud the councils who have gone the extra mile. Who aren't waiting. Who are making fuller information available online right away.
I take my hat off to Tendring District Council who have already made publicly available not just their spending over five hundred pounds… but the whole lot.  Every single item. If tiny Tendring can do it - why not everyone else? ( How about it Barnet ? )
Finally, we are transferring power and freedom over finance because we have faith in councils' ability - in your ability - to spend cash wisely.  To be the guardians of the public's money. ( Mr Mustard is not sure he was including Barnet in this remark ).
With that power comes responsibility. To live up to taxpayers' expectations. Not even the best council can rest on the laurels. ( And the worst need to sharpen up fast )
When local government collectively has spending power of some fifty three billion pounds of public money each year, even a couple of per cent of improvements could unlock a billion pounds' worth of efficiencies.
So keep doing what you do.
Making taxpayers' money count. Making services come together. Making local government work.

So what was the Council Leader's response to this speech. This summary is from Patrick Butler's Cuts Blog in the Guardian

Leader of Barnet Council, Councillor Richard Cornelius, said: "Something seems to have got lost in translation here. At no point has Barnet Council ever paid £1 million to "snoop" on anyone. We will be in contact with Eric Pickles' office."

Oh dear, Mr Mustard does hope that Cllr Cornelius really wasn't going to do that. Barnet Council has been caught well and truly in a big hole of their won making and so the answer is not to keep digging, as everyone else knows. Sadly for you Cllr. Cornelius what Mr Pickles had to say was the absolute shameful shocking truth.

Mr Mustard will now suggest what you ought to have said, "Nothing at all" or even better "We are very sorry that we have completely failed the Taxpayers of Barnet"

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard