Keith Prince’s administration is phobic about finance. They prefer blissful ignorance. I’m sure the resignation of the Director of Finance is coincidental but it is worrying when senior staff leave.
Alex Sibley (2 minutes)1 introduced the Lane Rental Scheme. Utilities will have to pay to dig up the roads and therefore if they prolong their works they pay more. Alex’s confidence lasted three minutes before he called on officers to rescue him. After another three minutes Keith joined in to move the presentation along. It wasn’t a commanding performance.
Graham Day (12) (27) (44) works full-time and is under pressure. He’s a new councillor ‘learning on the job’. Those are the caveats but do they matter? He earns £35,000 as a cabinet member, making a reductionist calculation, I think he should be devoting a day a week (approx. £673). He was provoked by Gillian Ford and said, defensively, he’d only been in office for 16 weeks (54). That is approximately 128 hours of ‘Full-time’ effort. He should be up to speed in that time.
Graham is a potentially classy cabinet member. He shows passion and engagement (12) (27) (44) but lacks confidence. He calls on officers too soon and undermines himself. He made important points about the benefits of controlling Adult Services by having elements provided ‘in house’ (37) (56).
Keith Prince (1:05) Keith’s item was a pathetic travesty of hope over experience. The principal takeaway was It will be alright on the night. (1:13)
Sean McMahon (1:25) At one point he sounded like an evangelical booster for high tech. He’d done his homework and faithfully reproduced it. No costings, no specific detail on AI, just a Trust me vibe. So, the question is: do we trust his judgement?
Keith Prince (1:46) Keith bid farewell to Kathy Freeman the Director of Finance. It was fulsome but ruined by what he firmly believed was ‘Banter’. He made a wonderful announcement about Harold Wood library, which has been saved. It will re-open on the 15th October under new management.
Summary
The Administration is fluffy and ‘feel-good’ to the point where it becomes delusional.
Notes
1 Annotator Player All times relate to this webcast
2 He had three items on the agenda and the time where each one begins.
