One
mystery more or less solved—how much Commissioner Best was paid—and another
mystery that remains unsolved—WTF did he do to earn it?
You may recall that the minutes for 6 July 2015
contained an appendix A to item 9.2.1.
Titled ‘An Unsustainable Path – York Shire Council Heading for
Insolvency’, it cited the sum of $807,824 as having been incurred by the Shire
since March 2014.
Some of us have concluded that the author
of that appendix was none other than Commissioner Best, aided by Acting CEO
Graeme ‘They’re all exemplary employees’ Simpson.
Even a cursory analysis of the document
suggests that most of the sum in question would most probably have been
incurred and expended during the latter part of financial year 2014-15—that is,
during the calamitous reign of Commissioner Best.
I’m still reeling from the payment of
$33,000 to Professional Public Relations (PPR) for ‘Brand reputation management
and corporate communication’. What
will the tribe of unscrupulous corporate footpads think of next?
Governance
I published the appendix in this blog on 19
July. It’s still there for you to
read, if you enjoy the sensation of being amused and disgusted at the same
time.
My present concern is with the item headed
‘Governance’. This includes a
payment to the Commissioner of $51,000.
Later—I’m not quite sure when—this amount
was increased to $63,000. I can’t
remember what the additional $12,000 was for. Can anyone enlighten me?
But that’s not the whole story. At last Monday’s Council meeting, in a
rare moment of transparency, the Acting CEO told us that Mr. Best, in the guise
of his company BBC Consulting, was paid $39,000 for his ‘visioning’
program in addition to his fee as commissioner.
Pressed for further details, the Acting CEO
added that Minister Tony Simpson, when appointing Mr. Best, had authorised him
to conduct the program in York at the Shire’s expense.
I don’t know what possessed the Acting CEO
to say that. A reliable source
tells me it isn’t true. Apparently
Minister Simpson did nothing of the kind.
In that case, it would seem that Mr. Best took
it upon himself to inflict his ‘visioning program’ on the good folk of York.
If
not the Minister, who authorised the contract?
And this is where we dive into the
sewer. You see, somebody acting as
Council would have had to authorise the contract between BBC Consulting and the
Shire. The only person in a position to do that was—you’ve guessed it—James
Best.
Am I the only one to catch the mephitic
odour of an undeclared ‘financial interest’ here?
Hold on though—perhaps the interest was declared. Here’s a possible scenario.
Commissioner James Best decides to contract
BBC Consulting, proprietor James Best, to bestow upon the citizens of York the
civilising benefits of several sessions of ‘visioning’, maybe with a sprinkling
of ‘ideation’ and a ‘wordle’ or two to follow.
Commissioner Best then recollects that he
is in fact one and the same person as James Best, proprietor of BBC
Consulting. So he declares to
himself as Commissioner that he has a financial interest in the proceedings, disqualifies
himself from discussing and voting on the matter, then, as de jure Council of the day, authorises the transaction and directs
the Acting CEO to implement payment.
Ah, but somebody in the Shire administration
would have had to sign off on payment of the contract amount to James Best in
his capacity as consultant and proprietor of BBC Consulting.
Was that person Acting CEO Simpson? If not, who was it?
Questions
However this act of financial depredation was
accomplished, it raises the following questions:
1.
Was the appointment of BBC
Consulting authorised by Minister Simpson, as the Acting CEO has claimed?
2.
If so, precisely on what
legislative basis did the Minister act, bearing in mind that he would have been
effectively authorising Mr. Best to help himself to the Shire’s, i.e. our, financial resources?
3.
If so, did the Shire receive
written confirmation from the Minister’s office that the appointment had been
so authorised?
4.
Further, if so, will the Acting
CEO seek the Minister’s permission to table the relevant document?
5.
If Minister Simpson did not
authorise the appointment, what steps did the Acting CEO take to ensure that
payment to Mr. Best of $39,000 for his ‘visioning’ program was a legitimate use of
Shire funds?
6.
Was the transaction a budgeted
item? If not, would it not have had
to be approved by a majority of councillors and minuted accordingly?
7.
If the Minister did not
authorise the appointment, and the appointment was not budgeted, where in the
minutes are Mr. Best’s appointment of his company, i.e. himself, to run the
visioning program, and the payment to him of $39,000, recorded?
8.
How many ‘visioning’ sessions
were actually held?
9.
How many people attended each
one?
10.
How many were cancelled, or
postponed but never actually held?
11.
How many such sessions did
Commissioner Best arrange but fail to turn up for?
12.
Do Council and/or the Acting
CEO consider that the people of York got value for money from BBC Consulting?
13.
If not, what steps can and will
Council take to recover the sum expended, or part of it?
At a rough estimate, I would say that Mr.
Best’s part-time sojourn in York as Commissioner cost the York community at
least $103,000, made up as follows:
$51,000 for being our commissioner; $39,000 for his ‘visioning’ program;
and $13,000 for God knows what, unless it was the cost of meals, accommodation
and travel expenses, which I suspect was in fact an additional but so far unspecified
burden on the Shire.
And we shouldn’t forget the purchase of
Chalkies for $625,000, this time not for his own benefit (and certainly not for
ours!) but for that of his friends at Faversham House.
A little bird told me that Mr. Best has
been touting for consultancy work in other Wheatbelt towns, telling people
there what a wonderful job he did in York.
Frankly, I despair.
(Apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan)
(click to enlarge)
Perhaps it’s time we put you out to grass.
*******
GAME OF THRONES
Rating or rorting? Never mind which, we’re rooted (again)
From
the land where law is king
The rates are the true embodiment
Of everything that’s excellent.
Pay, peasants, or it’s off to court:
We’ll sell you up and sell you short.
(Apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan)
The table above comes from the Sunday Times for 9 August 2015.
In the metropolitan area, people are
screaming because annual rates have risen by between 1.95% (Stirling) and 8%
(Victoria Park).
In the country, the range is 0.2%
(Ashburton) to 7.95% (Waroona).
Hold on—where’s the Shire of York, with its
fabulous 13% rise?
The Sunday
Times asked every local authority, including York, for information about
the rates set for the current financial year.
It appears that the Shire of York ignored
the request. No prizes for
guessing why.
Acting CEO Simpson, James Best and their 'exemplary employees' have made York a laughing stock (or as John Elkington might say, have 'diminished' and 'undermined' the Shire).
Acting CEO Simpson, James Best and their 'exemplary employees' have made York a laughing stock (or as John Elkington might say, have 'diminished' and 'undermined' the Shire).
Colin Barnett and Tony Simpson—over to you
(I’m joking, of course).
*******
‘Coup de grass’ (sorry, I couldn’t resist it)
Readers may remember that
on 7 June I posted former CEO Ray Hooper’s ringing endorsement of Green Planet
Grass, the firm that laid down artificial grass for the bowling greens at the
Recreation Centre.
I’ve since been told
that the same firm provided the grass for the tennis courts. The whole job would have cost tens of
thousands of dollars.
Imagine my surprise on
seeing the photographs below, taken this morning by a friend. Something appears to have gone badly
wrong with the surface of the courts.
My first thought was
that the job would have been carried out under warranty, so the Shire should
call on Green Planet Grass to repair the damage.
Well, as it turns out,
the Shire did exactly that.
But Green Planet Grass
has refused to honour the warranty—and rightly so, because, as the firm points
out, the courts haven’t been maintained.
Like real grass, you
can’t leave artificial grass to fend for itself. It has to be looked after, treated with tender loving care,
much like the real thing.
So—what went wrong?
It’s obvious that for
some reason, the Shire has fallen down on the job.
Though maybe not only
the Shire—some of the blame would have to be laid at the door of the Tennis
Club, if the club committee failed to give the Shire a nudge to get the job done.
And as Mr. Richard
Bliss recently reminded us in a famous letter to YDCM, the buck stops with the
boss.
Come on, Acting CEO
Simpson, tell us why you’ve allowed the tennis court surface to deteriorate in
this way and what you propose to do about it.
Perhaps it’s time we put you out to grass.
Another blog joins the fray…
The York Consortium
and I welcome the advent of a new blog set up three weeks ago specifically, as
it says, to scrutinise the foolish, evasive, misleading and downright dishonest
answers, or failures to answer, issued at Council meetings by Acting CEO
Simpson (and occasionally other members of Shire staff) to questions on notice
and from the gallery.
Our blog, The REAL
Voice, is not connected with the new blog, ‘Shire of York Q & A’. Nor, I believe, is our friendly rival
‘The official unofficial site’ at http://shireofyork6302.blogspot.com.au/.
This is how the new
blog introduces itself and defines its purpose:
"It is
becoming increasingly obvious that Shire of York senior employees have
little or no aptitude when answering questions from members of the public.
This blog is dedicated to
some of those questions and ludicrous answers.
Any member of the public who
wishes to air a grievance in regard to this may do so on this blog.
Please send a copy of the
question and subsequent response by the Shire.
Any scans or images must be
in a JPEG format.
If you wish to remain
anonymous, or wish to redact addresses and telephone numbers, please do
so prior to forwarding any documents."
The new blog’s address is http://shireofyorkqanda.blogspot.com.au/. When we first read that address, we
assumed that the blog was initiated by the ABC’s chief resident leftie Tony Jones,
but he assures us he had nothing to do with it.
We exhort readers to follow the new blog
and feed it with relevant material.
The more the merrier, we say.
