This evening's meeting of Somerton Town Council did bring Somerton a small step nearer to understanding what was going on within the Keenan/Canvin administration in fiscal 2008/09. The External Auditor has now provided to Somerton Town Council a 'statement of fact' with regard to my objection to Somerton Town Council's audited accounts for 2008/09. As I understand it, this offers the Town Council the opportunity to check the facts and make sure that the Council agrees with the facts as they have been collated.
We will have to wait a little longer for the Auditor's judgement on those facts and I for one, can't wait. Its been a very long haul from July last year and I hope that the wait will have been worth it.
One interesting aspect of the Public Questions and Comments part of the meeting was the contribution of Rod Briggs and Sherry Briggs who, I understand, are related.
Rod led off with a very eloquent plea for less democracy. He wanted an end to people being able to ask questions but, rather hypocritically, he's been using exactly the same tools as I have been using to ask his own questions. I'm only sad that he wasn't around to help me last year when the old Somerton Town Council were wasting so much taxpayer's money on pointless legal opinions. (I was reminded of that earlier today when I was collating information for the Standards Board.) Rod clearly isn't a great supporter of transparency, accountability, community involvement or, rather surprisingly, elections. So Rod is probably a fan of co-option, rather like his chums on the old Somerton Town Council. Go Rod!
Rod was followed at the lectern by Sherry Briggs who took off her 'assistant to the clerk' hat and donned her 'Chair of the Secretive Community Association' hat. Her three minutes (more like 6) were focussed on a large dollop of self-congratulation mixed in with an impassioned plea for less democracy (I see a theme developing here). Evidently Sherry and her buddies at the SCA don't like people asking questions, especially..........wait for it........... people who ask leading questions. They are just going to stamp their feet and keep their secrets. How very reminiscent of the old Somerton Town Council.
So Sherry shares Rod's view of the Freedom of Information Act and it makes me think that they'd make a good double-act - Morecambe & Wise, Flanagan & Allen, Rod & Sherry. Maybe they should start a politcal movement and I'd like to suggest a name for their party - Stamp Out Democracy.
Till next time, I'm still Niall Connolly