by Bill Heaney
Martin Rooney urged political parties and independent elected members to work together to solve a £9.2m deficit – that’s the latest figure – facing the local authority.
However, Cllr Rooney is frequently criticised by the electorate in the Lomond Ward in Alexandria for having nothing to say about issues they consider to be matters of great importance.
The Council’s own online Complaints Column often attracts more than 100 e mails a week, many of which are not answered.
Cllr Rooney refuses to speak to The Dumbarton Democrat, a locally owned 21st century news platform, which has the highest readership in the area, to bring controversial issues into the public domain.
He has now told BBC Scotland the only options available for the council to raise money are increasing council tax, increasing sales fees and taxes, using reserves, management adjustment and savings.
In West Dunbartonshire, the Labour budget was approved over the SNP option, which had called for a 10.4% rise in council tax.
Two Labour councillors resigned in the wake of this and have not been seen or heard from since.
The approved budget will implement more than £1.4m in savings options and further management adjustments of £705,000 on top of the council tax rise.
What management adjustments are, the Council has never made clear.
It communications officers refuse to communicate with The Democrat to explain not just that but what so many different figures have been given for the “budget gap” which is said to have ranged from £14 million to £6 million.
That anti-democratic situation has been ongoing for the past FIVE YEARS.
Everyone knows Councillor Rooney only opens his mouth to defend the indefensible or speak about matters important to himself.
Cllr Rooney (extreme left) with other members of the council administration.
Cllr Rooney said working together was the only way to stop the council going bankrupt, but he has had so many people blocked from communicating with him on his social media site that he is frequently accused of “coming out from under the bed”.
“The council will go bankrupt in the next administration and I am talking about 2027 to 2032,” he said.
“That administration will not survive in the way that we do politics in West Dunbartonshire – throwing bricks at each other and trying to outdo each other or whatever it might be.
“People talk about cross-party working, maybe they want to start engaging with it rather than just saying it.”
Perhaps Cllr Rooney should take a leaf out of his own political journal. Or maybe he too should just resign.
Recently he and his Labour colleagues refused to get out of their seat to say anything at all on “hot potato” issues such as the redesign and restructure of the Council Carer Service.
Meanwhile, while he sat in his seat staring into space, a batch of flag waving carers demonstrating outside the council offices in Church Street had been joined by an angry, banner waving group of teacher members of the EIS who intimated they too would be taking industrial action.
Cllr Rooney told BBC Scotland that discussion of the financial difficulties could result in better solutions being found by the Council, but he hasn’t made any public suggestions as to how this might happen.
In order for this to come about, he will have to find a way of settling matters between the council, which has a reputation for victimisation and bullying, and has had to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation for that, and a host of disgruntled employees, who range from carers to school teachers.
Meanwhile, parents and teachers are unhappy about the education their children are receiving and the relatives of elderly, disabled and vulnerable people are raging at what has happened to the Carers’ Service.
Head in the sand councillors and officials on this council continue to refuse to comment to The Dumbarton Democrat, which takes great pride in its journalistic role of speaking truth to power.
West Dunbartonshire Council should set the budget cuts ball rolling and allow democracy and free speech back into Dumbarton which has been abused, neglected and mismanaged for far too long.
The Council Leaders votes for cuts every year without as much as a whimper. There is no resistence or fight against the cuts from Westminster. If WDC does go bankrupt this reluctance to fight the cuts and set a needs based budgeting will be part of the reason. None of the 22 Councillors were elected on a ticket of cutting public services and jobs, but each year a majority vote for this outcome.
Meanwhile look at where they continue to waste money. The bins fiasco and Mental health officers. We simply cannot afford these things. The mental health officers are unqualified people no better than witch finders. Plenty of money for them!
Value for money, efficiency and effectiveness should be at the heart of council service delivery. Sadly this is not the case. The council bleat about cuts with their answer being to simply increase rates and charges year in year.
But do they ever address efficiency. Council workers have some of the best pay and conditions that no one outside the local authority or the civil service enjoy. That should engender great service. But does it?
One example of good pay and conditions is that of pension provision. Across the entire UK the employer contribution to pension is an average of around 3.6%.
That’s not a lot when you consider how much money you need for a pension at the end of your working life.
By comparison WDC make an average percentage employers contribution of around 26%. That difference in contribution is absolutely huge. For someone on an average wage of around £34,000 that delivers a pension contribution of circa £8,600 as opposed to around £1,600. And that is why average Joe gets a money purchase pension as opposed to final salary.
But it doesn’t stop there. When sick council employees are entitled to six months full pay and six months half pay. How many in the outside world get that?
Good luck to the council employees for their lucky position but is this something we can now afford? It’s an interesting question that begs an answer from Joe average.
Top money should deliver top efficiency but we never hear from our council champions about that. When we deliver more, produce more we can pay more. Achieving that should be a priority.
Of course, much if the council’s problems will lie with senior officers and not the common five eight. We know that, but what is being done as for example councillors get double digit inflation bursting rises.
That’s another good question as we race to the bottom and potential bankruptcy.
So, what do the people think? How do we get the best bang for our buck whilst supporting not just employees but all the others too who rely on council services?