Conversation with a Merthyr Councillor

I have had to publish this post to set the record straight.

I will challenge anyone who implies that I don’t have the bottle to speak to Officers when my questions are put to the Full Council on my behalf by the Mayor.

I choose not to put the questions personally because I know what the Council’s Constitution allows me to do.

As a member of the public I can only, in this particular subject matter, put my questions to the Cabinet Member with the portfolio for Social Services.

The Constitution does not allow a member of the public to question Officers of the Council.

So, I have not missed the opportunity to challenge an Officer of the Council.

The opportunity never existed.

The only opportunity I do have is to publish my blog posts to put in the public domain exactly what the Senior Officers of the Council and others have done to cover-up a) their failures to follow proper Safeguarding and Child Protection procedures and b) to destroy an employee’s career to distract from their failures.

I also use social media groups and platforms to spread the truth of what has gone on and continues to go on at the Council.

The Thread

This is a paraphrased thread of a conversation I had with a Merthyr Councillor on Thursday.

It is paraphrased to protect the identity of the Councillor.

Councillor

You’ve had two opportunities to question the Monitoring Officer Directly with both your primary question and potential Supplementary questions.

You did not attend at your first question and remained unseen with your camera off and your Mike on mute on the second opportunity.

You maintain your not being listened to but didn’t take full advantage of your opportunity when presented with the opportunity not once but twice.

Yet here we are the morning after and you resume with what you have continually done.

I’m not sure how you want this to progress by sending me the same allegations as before?

My Response

My first question for Council

“When will the WAO Report on the Review of Whistleblowing Arrangements relating to Safeguarding at Merthyr Council be considered by the Full Council”

My second question for Council

“Has the WAO Report on the Review of Whistleblowing Arrangements relating to Safeguarding at Merthyr Council ever been considered and discussed at any official Council Meeting. If it has, please provide details of the meeting/s concerned. If not, why not, and when will the original report be presented to the Full Council for consideration and discussion”.

As you should be aware, in accordance with the Council’s Constitution a member of the public can ask a question of the Cabinet member with the appropriate portfolio.

In this case that would be Councillor Julia Jenkins.

I did not have any opportunity to put my question to the Monitoring Officer.

Also, there are time restrictions.

My purpose in having these questions raised by Full Council is so that Councillors would have an opportunity to get on board and ensure that the Original Audit Report is considered and discussed by Full Council.

I have been in direct contact with a number of Councillors, including yourself, and have given them all the information on the Cover-up of Safeguarding Failures at the Council.

I have also done much research to show how good governance at Merthyr Council is poor.

I am suprised that the Cabinet member with the portfolio for Governance and I am very surprised that the Council does not appear to be doing much to sort it out.

The New Constitution is going nowhere.

The Presentation of Committee Minutes to Full Council for approval is unconstitutional and I have done the research of what other Welsh Councils do. Merthyr are unique as the only Council doing it wrong.

The latest Officer’s Report to Council was deemed by the author Lisa Curtis-Jones to be an Information Report.

As such the report was received. No discussion. An absolute joke.

You say that you are not sure how I want this to progress.

I am sending you the same information and some new information.

How I want this to progress is that the Councillors take some responsibility to ensure that there is good governance in the Council.


I also want the Councillors to accept responsibility for making accountable the Officers who have covered-up the serious Safeguarding and Child Protection weaknesses at the Council.

A Senior Officer is responsible for wrongly suspending an employee for 18 months requiring an apology to be written by Gareth Chapman.

She wasn’t made accountable for that.

She then failed to get a Senior HR Officer to sign an NDA and accept a financial severance payment to resign.

As a result of that she fabricated an SOSR investigation that resulted in his suspension in June 2016 and unfair dismissal in January 2017.

She was never made accountable for that.

Isn’t it a coincidence that Gareth Chapman took early retirement in July 2019.

Just one month before the issue of the Audit Wales Report on the Review of Whistleblowing Arrangements related to Safeguarding at the Council.

Perhaps he didn’t think that Carys would have been so successful in suppressing that report.

However, succeeded she has.

With the assistance of a Council Administration that allows her so to do.

My most recent research has even surprised me by how far and wide the web of the cover-up extended

So many officers failed in their duties and responsibilities.

The only one employee that did his job properly and stuck to his guns was my son.

I have said before that I am not looking for revenge or compensation.

I just want those people involved in the Cover-up to be made accountable and dealt with accordingly.

It is time for an independent investigation.

Councillor

The questions were given a full airtime at Full Council twice. You chose not to critique Officers with your supplementary question twice, which was your right to do. why?

Councillors chose not to get further involved because they are obviously not convinced of what you allege.

The constitution is currently being reviewed, after it not being accepted by councillors without full scrutiny of the document which is happening now and cross party. So that is happening despite what you say.

The allegation of your son being the ‘only one who did his job’ is a little unfair to the other 1600 staff at the Council and a little skewed if you don’t mind me saying.

Here we are back to square one. You’ve had ample opportunity here Geoff that you’ve not made the most of. And now we’re back to a bombardment of what went before. A little unfair in Councillors Geoff.

My Response

I reiterate. The Constitution does not allow members of the public to question Officers at Full Council.

Regarding Councillors choosing not to get further involved because they are obviously not convinced of what I allege, I must respond that if what I ‘allege’ is not true don’t you think that the Council Senior Officers would take me to task.

If some Councillors are not convinced perhaps they would have the balls to let me know what they find unconvincing.

I would agree that the facts are difficult to believe.

I would find it hard to believe myself if I hadn’t done so much research into the events.

Regarding my allegation that my son was the ‘only one who did his job’ , I meant that my son was the only one involved in the failings and weaknesses of the Safeguarding Strategy Meetings at Ynysowen Primary School in February 2016.

Alex Beckham, Sarah Bowen, Lisa Curtis-Jones, Rosemary Lazell, Simone Roden, Carys Kennedy, Simon Jones, Gareth Chapman, Ellis Cooper and Fran Donnelly.

I obviously am not referring to the 1600 staff at the Council.


You say that I have had ample opportunity that I have not made the most of.

I am not bombarding Councillors for what went on before.

Most Councillors would have had no idea of what was going on.

Carys Kennedy was doing then what she does now. She has always informed the Council of what she wanted them to know.

The only Councillor that had some involvement was Kevin O’Neil.

As Leader of the Council at the time he asked Gareth Chapman if there was any need to be concerned about what the Judge of the ET Hearing had said about the failings of the Council. Mr Chapman said there was no need for concern.

And that was it. Some interrogation from an ex CID Senior Officer NOT.

The current group of Councillors should be more than aware of the Cover-up and also in the failings of Governance.

I can understand why they probably don’t want to bother. They have enough in their plates.

I really thought that I had got the message over to you.

Obviously not.

Nevermind, I will continue with my campaign.

Sorry to take up so much of your time.

Councillor

You are allowed to ask questions and you had the opportunity to do so, why did you not take that opportunity?

My Response

Members of the public are not allowed to question Officers.

Read the Constitution.

Councillor

You ask the Member the member will refer you on to Officers should they choose

My Response

That is not in the Constitution.

Councillor

How do you think we get answers then?

That doesn’t excuse why you didn’t ask questions though.

My Response

You get answers because you are a member of the Council. You are not a member of the public.

I’m sorry but I don’t need to excuse myself for not asking the questions.

The first question that was asked was answered by Julia.

The answer that Julia gave did not answer the question. (Not her fault – she can only give the answers that are given to her by Officers).

Had I asked the question, I would have then said that Julia failed to answer the question because the question asked related to WHEN the Report of the Review of Whistleblowing Arrangements related to Safeguarding at Merthyr Council would be presented to the Full Council for consideration and discussion.

A similar question was put to the Council on Wednesday.

Again, Julia was not able to answer it with the relevant information.

Julia did mention that there was a Report on the Agenda that would give more details.

However, that report was an information report and was not considered or discussed. Just received.

So, here we are again not knowing when the Report will be considered and discussed at Full Council.

It is a simple question that no Officer is prepared or able to answer.

I do believe I heard Julia say that she had asked for the Report to be sent to all Councillors.

I am no sure because my audio was a bit dodgy.