Thursday 5 June 2014

Jobs for the boys?

Cllr Mike Eathorne Gibbons was elected to the council as a Conservative and promptly joined the administration as an independent. He has been duly rewarded by his new LibDem/Independent masters.

Block voting by his new friends ensured that he was appointed to the Health Scrutiny Committee and immediately elected to the chair by prearranged block voting.

His appointment follows the sudden departure of portfolio holder Cllr Judith Haycock just prior to the announcement of the massive overspend of £11.6m and the subsequent reshuffle. The vastly more experienced Scrutiny Chair and Health professional Sue Nicholas lost out to political back scratching.

Whatever the politics I certainly wish him well in this very important post.

This week I was beaten by a similar block vote of the administration for Lib Dem, Rob Rotchell, to chair the Finance Portfolio Advisory Committee which advises Alex Folkes.

I was not at all surprised to see Cllr Folkes go for the comfy option of a fellow Lib Dem from North Cornwall. I was, however, astonished to find that Cllr Rotchell had been a member of the committee for a whole year. I have never heard him speak until today so we will have to wait and see if he is ready to offer critical challenge to Cllr Folkes or not.

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