Councillors are still fed sh*t and kept in the dark

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

The disdain Galway City Council management holds for city councillors shows no signs of abating. In fact, ‘tis worse it’s getting.

There was a time when officials could hide their contempt for elected members. But now the permanent public servants at City Hall no longer seem to bother to veil their lack of respect for politicians; not evenly thinly.

And while you might not have much esteem for city councillors either, the fact is they are our representatives in the local corridors of power.

We elect them to serve us, and to represent our interest. We also elect them to hold the full-time, permanent and pensionable – and handsomely paid – management at City Hall to account.

So, when the Council executive treat councillors with disdain, they are treating the rest of us with contempt too.

It’s an ongoing theme but let’s take the May meeting of the City Council as an example. The Chief Executive wasn’t there. The Deputy Chief Executive arrived late and missed debate on two important items on the agenda.

An acting Director of Services – not even a full-director – was left holding the fort. It’s not good enough.

Not only was the executive Missing In Action, one report they gave to the acting Director of Services to present at the meeting was as useful as a chocolate teapot.

The “Interim Report on the Galway Christmas Market”, which was presented to elected members at the Monday, May 14 meeting of the Council was shocking.

It was an insult to the intelligence of councillors. It’s bad enough that it was five months into the year, and the Council only had an “interim” report, it was worse again that the figures in it seemed to have been plucked from Santa Claus’ orifice.

The interim report was dated April 9 2018, and yet it contained no figures – interim or otherwise – as to the numbers of people who attended the market. The interim report cited the licence application, which said “an attendance in excess of 250,000 people was expected” but it did not say whether or not this target was met.

For  more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.