Councillors need to get control of officers - Environment committee

Mr Mustard appears in the above video, thanks Barnet Bugle, from about 1h45m.

Mr Mustard had been somewhat hyper-active at last night's Environment Committee having asked 36 questions which you can find on this link and that is because he thinks there is so much that is wrong with parking policy and he was trying to get councillors to be brave enough to tear up what officers had proposed and make it much more resident friendly.

There were three things that troubled him and the Bugle (himself a former councillor who knows about council procedures) and which they were whispering about in the public gallery.

1. When councillors proposed some changes to the draft policy which is to go out consultation they were told by officers that there wasn't really time to incorporate them. Why did officers not allow time for councillors' amendments to be incorporated rather than simply say it wasn't really possible and then suggest they would stick an extra piece of paper with councillors' comments in at the end? Officers should assume there will be changes and make the timetable accordingly. Councillors set policy, it is why they exist.

2. Councillors were told by a staff member that they should complete the consultation like ordinary members of the public should. Er, no. Councillors will consider the consultation feedback of residents and make their own suggestions at the next committee meeting to consider this, councillors are not the public in this regard, they represent the public. Officers need to remember this.

3. Both parking and Re: (The stupidly shortened name of Regional Enterprise, a council joint venture) officers / staff handed out papers to councillors at the meeting but did not put any extra copies on the table for the public. The public are entitled to see all papers in advance of the meeting as the opportunity to ask public questions was denied and the public were completely in the dark about the detail of what was being discussed. Nothing has been learnt since Tuesday's Audit Committee when an item had to be postponed for a week because councillors had not been given the papers in advance. Governance please take note.

Mr Mustard is off now to email governance and he will copy in the Chief Operating Officer who was also spectating from the public gallery.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Gravy train - column 4 of 8

So the column of the Corporate Structure Chart that we are going to look at today is column 4 - "Corporate Governance". This carriage of the train holds 95 people - yes Mr Mustard does agree that it is somewhat overcrowded in there and it puts out lots of smoke and has mirrored walls. The carriage is beautifully decorated on the outside and is named "transparency & democracy"  but somehow no information ever comes out of the carriage. There is no lighting; it travels completely in the dark. Transparency & Democracy has rarely been glimpsed on the railway tracks of Barnet although you hear it talked about all of the time.

The chief conductor in this carriage is Jeff Lustig. He is rather grandly titled the Director of Corporate Governance. He gets £132,480 p.a. for trying to keep the train on the rails. The present section of track is extremely bumpy but that won't bother Mr Lustig. He had trouble with a piece of land on the sloped section that is Underhill I'm told but others can comment on that.He is also a stickler for making the train run on time. The special Audit train was being driven by Lord Palmer last month, oh what fun he had, and Lord Palmer wanted to stop and pick up a few more poor parishioners but Mr Lustig wouldn't have it; we've been 30 minutes at that stop and not a minute more. Lord Palmer is a sport though and he drove off very slowly so a few more passengers got aboard although some were still left behind on the platform. Despite buying a ticket for the train they were not allowed on board; it's no way to run a railway.

There are 3 assistant conductors.

Margaret Martinus must be very busy waving flags at everyone as she is the "Assistant Director - Legal" and there is lots of squabbling between train officials and just about everyone else. She also signed the recycling contract which I will soon enlighten you about. You might want to recycle Corporate Governance afterwards. Ms Martinus is paid £99,555 p.a.

Ms Aysen Giritli is the "Acting Head of Democratic Services" according to the corporate structure chart or the "Democratic Services Manager" according to the unaudited Accounts; now you know how it feels to be caught with the wrong type of ticket on the train although you thought you had the right one. Don't go getting in the first class carriage now Ms Giritli when you only have a second class ticket and a third class employer. Mind you, on £72,048 p.a. you can afford to travel first class wherever you go.

The third assistant conductor, are we on Indian Railways all of a sudden ?, is Sian Hughes, the "Head of Governance and Service Development" ( Mr Mustard has an idea - in the future no-one can have a job title which has more letters in it than in their name - that would make things simpler ) . She has been on this train for a while working her way up through the ranks. She now earns £72,048 p.a.

So there we have it. To run this shining beacon of this miscarriage of democracy costs £376,131 p.a. and it won't be long before Mr Mustard has checked out the ticket classes of all the other travellers and can give you the total annual spend.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard