If you had the chance, would you vote to keep Dundee’s local government officers in their well-paid jobs?
Would you retain the vast powers of a bloated, self-perpetuating, luxuriously-paid bureaucracy of unelected “executive directors” and “heads of”?
It was the recommendation of council officers to close Mills Observatory, Caird Park golf course and Broughty Castle.
When identifying cuts, they target services, facilities and institutions like community centres.
I don’t recall them ever suggesting swingeing reductions in the numbers or salaries of their top brass.
Who appraises Gregory Colgan, Dundee City Council’s chief executive?
He was paid £170,049 in 2023/24 – £10k more than the prime minister.
Radical change
We need reform.
This should be implemented from above, but neither the UK nor Scottish Government show an appetite for such radical change.
The people supposed to hold this bureaucracy to account, at least to some degree, are councillors.
They represent voters in the machinery of government.
But the current lot don’t have the brains or bravery for that.
We don’t elect councillors for their personal accomplishments. We judge them on the party they belong to.
Unsurprisingly, this means their loyalty is firstly to their party – that’s how they got selected then elected.
It also means they don’t need talent, character, or even to be liked.
You could put up Myra Hindley as an SNP candidate in Dundee and she’d get in.
The result is a council of low achievers not willing – or intellectually able – to point out the flaws of the system.
‘Do as they’re told’
They are good at being led, not so good at taking charge.
You want proof? Look at city council meetings online.
The arrogant officers have little respect for councillors, treating them like not-too-bright children.
And the subservient councillors cast their eyes downward.
They never upbraid officers for not having information to hand, or question whether they’re overstepping their authority.
They do as they’re told.
Do you agree with my assessment of the calibre of councillors?
If the answer is no, which do you think is capable of driving forward a large, multi-faceted private company?
Who would rise to the top in a highly-competitive corporate environment?
‘Independent candidates only’
I include all Dundee councillors in this criticism because they all represent a party.
And they regard other party groups as adversaries rather than colleagues.
Whatever one party proposes, another opposes it. Not because it’s a bad idea, but because of who had it.
This tribalism prevents them forming a consensus with the breathing space to take a step back and assess the entire local government system.
One reform that might help is to ban political parties. Give us independents only.
This might, in time, lead to recruitment of better quality councillors with experience of management in the private sector; who recognise what a modern process map looks like; who know how to restructure for efficiency.
Real leaders and original thinkers.
People who can see through the self importance-enhancing tricks of officers, and their smoke and mirrors of self-interest.
People who will demand a slimmer, better value organisation instead of the current overpaid, overly-complex, unaccountable edifice.
Not a robot councillor only there because they are good at nodding.
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