Dundee City Council and its council officers are failing their city.
I was filled with disdain by their response to a Freedom of Information request.
It was reported the city council had answered an FOI that asked the cost of repairs at the Olympia Leisure Centre.
But they thought they could be clever and play with words.
They were asked how much repairs cost but stated that refurbishments were done. Not repairs.
Chief executive Gregory Colgan refused to explain how £6.1 million (of Dundee’s money) was spent.
Gregory, do you really think anyone is impressed by that?
Do you think business leaders in the city, your fellow chief executives around Scotland, or most importantly the Dundee public, will look at this and say: “What a fine job Gregory has done with that.
“He’s serving his city well. He’s an impressive operator.”
‘Face up to facts’
Come on, Gregory. You are demeaning yourself and your job title with deflection tactics like this.
Face up to the facts like real workers must. There should have been more of a response to this.
The citizens of Dundee are represented in the machinery of local government by councillors.
Will our councillors now do their job? Will they hold civil servants to account on behalf of the people?
Mark Flynn, on the day you became council leader you said: “I will stand up for our incredible city and its people at every opportunity, without fear or favour.”
Now’s your opportunity, Mark.
Without fear or favour, raise the repairs/refurbishment nonsense with this council employee, Gregory, and point out his performance wasn’t good enough.
Or are you going to let us down, Mark? Was that promise just words?
But any councillor could raise this issue. They could shout their displeasure about this embarrassment to the city.
I don’t care which party they support. I just want them to have the guts, the decency, the sense of civic responsibility to say: “This is wrong. Tell Dundee the truth.”
It would make life very difficult for Gregory if councillors loudly and publicly criticised him, pointing out that answering an FOI properly is an integral part of his job.
‘Damp squibs’
A councillor who felt a sense of duty to their constituents would have already been in the papers and on social media fulminating against that repair/refurbish answer.
But Dundee’s councillors and council officers have an unequal relationship.
Watch any council meeting on YouTube and see how servile councillors are when council officers speak to them.
This is the weakest set of councillors Dundee has ever had.
Just when we need firebrands we’ve got damp squibs.
They are second-stringers – beige, weedy types who sit at the back of an office muttering about being passed over for promotion.
They certainly haven’t been strong-willed enough to provoke a robust confrontation with the council’s chief executive.
At the next local elections, vote for whatever party you like, or no party.
But for the sake of Dundee, give these weaklings their jotters.
Give us councillors who have principles and a backbone; who will truly – without fear or favour – hold Gregory and his council officers to account.
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