Decision notice. The Bullying of Disabled Council Staff

[flamboyant]

Colin this post alone is averaging 200 hits per day that doesn't include the amount of hits on the rest of your site. thanks for making it possible to get these important issues into the public domain!

[twowheelsgood]

TWG run by Officers for Officers that is so true! Good post by the way!

 

From today's HT website- "Hushing up" row goes to the heart of who runs Herefordshire council and how.

 

"Lib Dem group leader Cllr Terry James said the way in which the allegations and their resolution was handled went to the heart of the who ran the council and how.

 

Where the council now gave every appearance of being run “by officers for officers†there was, said Cllr James, scope for a no confidence motion in the current leadership.

 

 At the very least, he said, external auditors should be invited in to examine how the allegations and resolution were handled.

 

As a group leader, Coun James said he, too, had no hint of what was going on."

[dippyhippy]

Some of us have had "no confidence in the current leadership" for quite some time, and signed the petition saying so.

[bobby47]

What a sh.it night I've had. Paid £2.20 to park the car that allowed me to stay until 9pm. Wandered into the Barrels with Cambo and The Gridknocker, bought the drinks £8.70. Wandered out of the pub and into the Methodist Church and paid £3 to get in to listen to Johnson and the other panelists answer questions from the audience.

Had a coughing fit, some kind lady was good enough to give me a sweet and some other lady who hissed 'shut up' caused to me to reply, 'don't be rude'. Went outside, had a cigarette, stopped coughing and then went back in to listen to the continued discussion between the audience and the panel.

Realizing it was getting near 9pm, I shoved me hand up, got given the microphone and asked the panel what they thought about Compromise Agreements or as I liked to call them Gagging Payments. The Chairman told me to shut up, had the microphone snatched off me and I then left to avoid a parking ticket.

They wouldn't even let me complete my question. Sit down and shut up. I may as well have stayed home and watched the execution of Saddam Hussein (again). Good grief!

[bobby47]

A humiliation! That's what it was and dont let anyone tell you otherwise. I was humiliated by some barstard I didn't know. And the worst of it is, I bloody paid to get in. Paid to be humiliated. The barstard wouldn't even allow me to construct an argument as to why it had relevance to whatever it was we were there for. Bloody humiliation!

[dippyhippy]

Bravo Bobby! There is no humiliation in expecting an honest answer to an honest question.

 

You asked the question.....they certainly didn't want to answer it.

 

But they will have to answer - because more and more people are going to be asking the exact same thing.

[twowheelsgood]

Who was the chair? Pay to be humiliated - could be this council's byline.

[bobby47]

Truly, I'd have sooner stood in the Commercial, picked out the biggest tattooed beast in there, walked up to him, handed him my Shimano Barbel Classic rod and questioned his parenthood. His reaction,which would probably have seen me sucking Scotch Broth through a straw for a fortnight would have been easier to bear than this burden of humiliation. The Barstard!

[flamboyant]

Bobby they obviously didn't know who you were! How dare they!

[bobby47]

Dippy my dear and sweet friend. I didn't ask the bloody question. I couldn't get the bloody question out. As soon as I mentioned Gagging Payments I became as popular as the bloody bubonic plague and was required to walk.

Course Cambo and The Gridknocker sat there grinning didn't they.

Bloody humiliation that's what it was and if anyone says otherwise they're a liar and an embellished.

[bobby47]

And the mighty Megilleland was there to witness my torment. In fact the more I think about it the worse it becomes. I'm going down the pub to get over this. What a shi.t night!

[dippyhippy]

The chair of this event was a Mr Jake Bahrier.

 

Fancy telling Our Bobby to shut up.

 

How very rude.

 

And in a church too.

 

Unforgivable.

[Cambo]

Bobby you didn't humiliate yourself far from it.

As the guy who was the chair came up to me & megilleland afterwards & he was very apologetic for not being able to take the question but said it should deffo be asked @ the next full council meeting!!

Anyway I think you deserve a bloody medal!!

Ps enjoyed the pint thou

[Aylestone Voice]

I have finally seen Bobby in action!

To be fair to the Chairman - the event was aimed at a Q & A on the future development of the city and I can see why he ruled Bobby out of order.

[megilleland]

Sorry Bobby but I was perplexed, exasperated and confused by this evenings event. I need to gather my thoughts.

[bobby47]

It gets bloody worse. The Commercial wont serve me. What a sh.it day. And as for the above comments, it says a lot when my dear and old friend Aylestone Voice try's to mitigate my personal disaster by saying he saw me in action!

What bloody action? I got handed the microphone. Muttered something about Compromise Agreements and Gagging Payments and more or less was told to clear off. I'm bloody drowning and you lot are painting the water.

Bloody Hell! I've just done me sums and the whole thing cost me £13. Bloody 90 rotten pence. £13.90 to have my ar.se kicked in front of an audience of complete strangers. Good God!

Course, she's of no help is she. 'Well', she said, 'you give it and so you should take it. It's about time someone cut you down to size'.

I said, 'you rotten old bag. Can't you be a little kinder to me. I'm feeling all bloody sensitive aren't I'.

[flamboyant]

Looks like the Council is swelling the ranks of its Legal Team! Or should I say Bill Normans Empire! How many front line staff will go to cover the cost of that!

 

http://news.herefordshire.gov.uk/Jobs/Jobs/Results/?Reset=true&jobCategories=Legal

[Cambo]

I think they are going to need them, when all hell breaks loose on this?

 

I meet cllr Vaughan-Powell tonight she's a nice lady & a really good person too I think!

[Glenda Powell]

I was there,if I realised it was you Bobby I would of stepped in, but you were not the only one he did that to he did not allow the second part of my question about "what will you do to regenerate businesses in the core centre of the city" because my first question was " will you support the Butter Market traders to take over the lease of the Butter Market" I did not antisipate the anger my question would cause. Also i was annoyed that the panel did not answer my question because of the shouting. Still come and put your questions at council next Friday, Shire Hall 10am.

[flamboyant]

Question time Road Show

Please come along and support your Local Council, please don't ask any questions! Anyone asking questions may be asked to leave, members of the Public who ask questions that do not show the Council in a good light will be forcibly ejected! Looking forward to seeing you!

[Denise Lloyd]

All is not lost Bobby has gained fame

 

" At a public debate in Hereford last night, a question from the floor related to the bullying row was refused.

The questioner  attempted to ask Cllr Johnson for his views on “alleged payments made to council staff for them to keep quiet about certain matters relating to their roleâ€.

The panel chairman ruled that the question couldn’t be allowed  as he didn’t think the four panellists could provide an answer.

Those other panellists were It’s Our County leader Cllr Anthony Powers, the Lib Dems’ parliamentary candidate for South Herefordshire, Lucy Hurds, and Liz Morawiecka from the Here4Hereford group." 

 

Taken from Mr Tanner's Friday offering in the HT.

 

Naive it maybe but I keep on saying that when these Leaders say they did not know what was going on they are probably being honest.  They rely on their minions to keep them informed and they foolishly trust them instead of talking to the real people in the Council - the workers.

 

I have seen it go on not in the Council but in various places of work.  The MD asks the Manager if everything is ok the Manage not wishing to show he is not doing his job properly says everything is just fine and dandy and the MD believes him.  But one day it all falls apart and then there is egg on face.

[twowheelsgood]

Another one now claims to know nothing, from todays web HT - 'Cllr Bob Matthews, leader of the Independent group, told the Hereford Times that he had “no recollection of this issue being raised with me as a group leader over the past few years.â€'

[WirralPC]

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre,

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..."

 

WB Yeats

[bobby47]

It's a strange, strange reality isn't it? Here we are in this age of modern enlightenment, news coverage twenty four hours a day and something as fundamentally important as this issue is, and we can't be told how much it cost us.

I think it's also tragic that people like our Mr Paul Cardin have to do so much work, face so much hostility and be subjected to huge pressures that surely must have an impact on the health, simply because they choose to ask why rather than sit there and do nothing to halt the slide.

Our Bill Tanner, whilst he's a great journalist and the source of much of what we find out about, even he must have to fight these debilitating daily battles to extract information that, sooner or later will come out anyway. It all comes out. It always does but in the meantime, Cardin, Tanner and the rest of us have to keep tapping to put pressure on Councillors, who've really no real idea about what's been going on, just so that someone up on high caves in, gives up, resigns and makes way for another who'll then do exactly what his predecessor did that got us all moaning and tapping in the first bloody place.

It's bloody relentless. What's wrong with concluding that Compromise Agreements, as the Council like to call them,are wrong! What's so bad about concluding that Council staff shouldn't be paid ninety thousand pounds simply because somebody unaccountable to us and elected Councillors thinks it a good idea to pay this money to someone who's leaving their employment anyway!

And to dress it all up as good practice instead of saying what it really is, highly paid public servants feeding at the trough of public money, only adds fuel to the flames.

Truly, it wouldn't surprise me one little bit if no elected Councillor knew a thing about what's been going on. I'd believe it! Call me a fool but I'd believe it. From what I've seen, from what I know and from what my sources have told me, the top floor of Plough Lane are beyond any accountability and it would be of no surprise for me to learn that the top floor never told their political masters anything about anything.

And if this is true, and it bloody probably is, then God help us because its a sure fire indicator that other things, other illicit things, have been carried out during the procurement process of contracts which, like this hidden secret, will eventually be exposed and we'll all say exactly what we said when the MP's expenses story broke, 'never again. You won't fool us again'.

The truth is, they can fool and trick us over and over again because our democratic structure allows them to behave in this poor way.

I tend to agree with our Denise. I've looked deep into the eyes of Tony Johnson and whilst he is a lovely chap with some fine qualities, being inquisitive and wanting to grab a hold of our Chief Executive and his underlings to discover exactly what they are getting up to, ain't one if them. This leader of the Council hasn't a clue and if he tells me, 'I haven't got a clue about anything', I for one believe him.

[Clarkester]

But this sort of thing has happened before Bobby...

Anyone remember this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/7073924.stm

[bobby47]

Clarkester, Yes my old friend, I remember it well. Ain't it awful! Good bloody grief!!!

Anyway, to any one out there who has a Facebook account, I'd be grateful if you'd visit the Herefordshire Council Facebook page and pop a supportive comment to the question I've asked them about Compromise Agreements. I tried to word it in a way in which they won't send me hurtling off down the FOI route which TANNER & CARDIN have already been down.

My warmest regards Clarkester. Take care pal.

[gdj]

Another one now claims to know nothing, from todays web HT - 'Cllr Bob Matthews, leader of the Independent group, told the Hereford Times that he had “no recollection of this issue being raised with me as a group leader over the past few years.â€'

 

 

Cllr Matthews is being very careful with his words.  He does not deny knowing about all this, he is using a form of words that just give that impression.  What used to be called `plausible deniability'.   "I have no recollection of ......."     means "I could have been told but am going to say that if I was, I have forgotten".   "as a group leader" can mean that he wasn't told in his capacity as Group leader, but he is making no comment about conversations outside that role. 

 

from the HT report:

 

 

had no formal briefing on bullying allegations “hushed up†by secret  settlement and severance payments.

 

again - I wasn't told officially - no comment on unofficial briefings.

 

Beware the senior managers' and politicians phrases to almost, but not quite, deny something or some knowledge.

 

"There is no evidence that...."

"I have no recollection of...."

"I deny wrongdoing" (meaning it wasn't actually illegal - and even if I did do it, wrongness is subjective so I am saying it wasn't wrong.

or from the Rotherham scandal " I did not realise the scale or scope of the problem" -

 

Wouldn't it be refreshing for a statement to be put out that said:

 

"I did not know about this.  I should have known about it.  Those who did not tell me are being disciplined"

[dippyhippy]

Hi Clarkester,

 

Many months ago, when questions were first being asked about the IT issues, I posted a comment..."It's not that long since The Crookall Report."

 

This thread has been viewed thousands of times, and did have pages of extremely pertinent comments and links to Pauls FOI requests, and other very relevant and informative links. Now it shows only three posts.....it does however, still record that 38 members visited the page - including 4 councillors.

 

I so wish Colin could use his computer wizardry to reinstate all the comments on that thread. (You Don't Deserve Democracy" started in December 2013) 

 

Colin - if you read this.....any chance they can be retrieved????

[gdj]

Clarkester, Yes my old friend, I remember it well. Ain't it awful! Good bloody grief!!!

Anyway, to any one out there who has a Facebook account, I'd be grateful if you'd visit the Herefordshire Council Facebook page and pop a supportive comment to the question I've asked them about Compromise Agreements. I tried to word it in a way in which they won't send me hurtling off down the FOI route which TANNER & CARDIN have already been down.

My warmest regards Clarkester. Take care pal.

 

Until 2011, when Paul Cardin shamed them into changing their ways (at least a bit), Herefordshire Council couldn't even say how many compromise agreements had been arranged/signed in the previous years.  Essentially, they weren't keeping count.  They did promise Paul that henceforth they would keep better records.    It wouldn't take much for a councillor or two to ask occassionally "I say, old chaps, been any compromise agreements recently that yours truly ought to know about eh?"   

 

"I wasn't told" can be flipped by the officers to "Well, you never asked".

[flamboyant]

Brilliant GDJ

 

Just found this story from the Hereford Times I don't remember this at the time, it would appear they have learned nothing! Lots of respect for Cllr Lloyd Hayes.

 

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/features/elections/councilnews/1872882.Councillor_quits_over_feeble_opposition/