31 December - Bonkers Man of the Year 2012
Bexley council is not as easy to ridicule as it used to be. The end of 2011 was marked with a
tongue in cheek but factual mickey taking
of several councillors which is impossible to repeat for 2012. Maybe fewer silly things are
happening or perhaps they are getting better at hiding them. So instead of a dozen names
available for an award only one man can be honoured for his maladministration in 2012.
Who should it be?
The
clown mayor Alan Downing obviously deserves consideration for telling
councillor Peter Craske that he didn’t have to switch on his microphone if he
didn’t want to thereby ensuring that the Civic Centre hearing loop didn’t work and chalking up
an offence against
Equalities Legislation. The Local Government Ombudsman
hasn’t finished with him yet so perhaps any award can be deferred to next year.
The purple pygmy councillor Peter Craske is old hat now. So last year and a
spent force. Whether he is eventually charged with a crime or he isn’t doesn’t
much matter. The police have said
the criminal blog originated on his home phone line and the
Association of British Bookmakers must be overjoyed to have their name
linked to crime whenever someone searches the web for their Public Relations Manager.
Council
leader Teresa O’Neill is tarred with a similar brush. The police have said that political
interference damaged their Craske enquiries and it’s not hard to guess where that originated from.
We know it was O’Neill who spun the police a false story that resulted in me being formally warned
of arrest if I continued with this website and John Kerlen being arrested for harassment.
John was found not guilty due to lack of evidence - not surprising as Bexley councillors
had made the whole thing up - and my warning was withdrawn following intervention by
the Independent Police Complaints Commission. All because councillor Teresa O’Neill made a
statement to the police (it’s on the record) which was false. She may be the epitome of
a dishonest small time politician but it is not exactly news, she professed total innocence when
her predecessor Ian Clement was caught with his hand in the till too.
For something new I must reach beyond the usual suspects.
Who
was it who deliberately misinterpreted the council’s
Standing Order 84
to sideline 2,219 residents who felt that Bexley having the
6th highest senior officer salaries
in the country was unjustifiable?
Who admitted there is
nothing in council protocols to forbid photography on council premises before public
meetings but on his own initiative has banned every request to use a camera?
Kevin Jobsworth Fox, Head of Committee Services and Scrutiny must be Bonkers Man
of the Year in every sense of the word. The runner’s up prize is awarded to
Bexley council’s Head of Human Resources who, after a complaint was submitted,
backed Fox’s decision to the hilt. No justification for it, just unswerving
support by one council numbskull for another. Mr. Nick No Brains Hollier, the
man to watch in 2013.