Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Councillor trained on Code of Conduct
My original question together with the council's reply, are on this web page of the WhatDoTheyKnow site:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/details_of_councillor_training_f
Although there is no minimum level of performance required at the training, the council believes that Cllr. Adje is now adequately conversant with the Members' Code of Conduct and he is now trained sufficiently to take on the responsibilities of chairs and vice chairs in council decision making.
Tags for Forum Posts: Adje, Charles, Determination, Hearing, Standards, sanction, suspension, training
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Well done, Clive for following through on this.
We have our differences of course, but about Cllr Charles Adje we completely agree that he should not be a member of this Council. As I have said before, I very much hope that - training or not - he will retire gracefully and not seek to stand again as candidate.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Yes I agree. The FoI answers to questions 5 and 7 were never likely to be nuanced. I'm not sure how many of those familiar with the story will have confidence in the positive clearance.
I note that the training did not cover the responsibilities of Trusteeship, the matter that council lawyer Terence Mitchison properly raised at the Hearing. The council may not wish to put Cllr Adje up again for that kind of role.
We must all hope that Cllr Adje will step down.
Or, if he is again appointed to chair a decision-making committee that - thanks to the claimed successful training - his chronically poor judgement might lead to financial loss smaller than those when he chaired the AP Trust Board.
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One problem with transience in areas such as Tottenham is that the electorate "churns". So many people may be blissfully unaware of the record - positive or negative - of those candidates who the political parties select.
It was disgraceful that Standards for England never published the full report on Charles Adje and the Welbourne Centre. And even more of a disgrace that, after Standards for England was abolished, their website was taken down. So even the sketchy summaries about complaints upheld against councillors are not quickly and easily available.
Obviously, in the absence of any effective opposition parties in Haringey, it's up to individuals to try to fill the gap and - before May 2014 - publish or republish solid factual information which will help electors make better informed decisions.
Fortunately, Cllr Adje's role with Firoka and Alexandra Palace is extremely well documented. So were he to be selected as a Labour candidate, the task will be to put together a shorter version for voters.
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I would hope that at least some voters care about issues like the integrity of their representatives, but few have the time to read through pages of material. I've attached (below) the 114 page Transcript of the Standards Committee Determination Hearing that can be downloaded but it's unlikely to interest many.
I beleive the transcript accurately gives a flavour of Cllr Adje's blustering disregard for the truth.
However, on the question of Charles Adje's integrity, it is also worth quoting Terence Mitchison, the impressive council lawyer (now retired). At 934, Mr. Mitchison addresses the panel on the subject of determining the penalty and the factors that may argue for a more serious sanction:
In terms of aggravating factors as set out by the Standards Board, the first is dishonesty, the second is continuing denial of the facts, I think in the light of the panel’s finding, clearly an issue is raised as to whether there was due recognition by the Member that his account lacked credibility.
Did he persist in putting forward an essentially inaccurate and wrong, subjectively wrong, account in the face of evidence from Keith Holder and in the face of the logic and the probability of the documentary evidence? My submission would be that he did continue to deny relevant facts long after it was fairly obvious that his story lacked credibility.
The third factor, did he unfairly blame others? Clearly there’s an element of dispute over the question of compromising Keith Holder’s professional integrity; you’ve not found that as a breach, but there’s also clearly an element of unfair blame on Keith Holder for supposedly executing a voluntary u-turn.
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(Paragraph 934 [TM]. I have divided it into three smaller paras for clarity)
Just in case readers have missed the point, this is the man who was welcomed back into the Council Majority Group following a four month suspension for bringing the council into disrepute.
He remains a serving councillor; I remain disgusted that he was allowed back.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Maybe it wasn't anything to do with you after all Alan but this does make me laugh. Do you remember the reasons that the Labour party gave for their rather harsh treatment of Liz and Hugh in the 2010 election? It was for exactly what you are asking people to do now. The information we endeavoured to put in the hands of the electorate was unwelcome at best.
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What I remember was that in the Parliamentary and Council elections in 2010 Harringay Online blazed a new trail by offering a video platform for local candidates - mainly I think for St Ann's and Harringay wards. Perhaps not all took the opportunity but most did. There were also videos of Robert Gorrie and Clare Kober then LibDem and Labour Leaders. Hugh (and Liz?) were at the Election count and videoed speeches from David Lammy, Lynne Featherstone and Claire Kober.
All these videos are on YouTube here. (Scroll down until you get to the early videos.)
There may be some individual members of all the parties who don't necessarily see HoL entirely positively. And others who see Social Media in general as offering more threats than opportunities.
To apply a comment by Clay Shirky about Universities to how we "do" local politics:
"... the risk is that we'll be last to know that the world has changed because we can't imagine - really cannot imagine - that the story we tell ourselves about ourselves could start to fail. Even when it's true. Especially when it's true."
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Selective memory Alan? Do you not remember the individual write-ups done by Liz on each candidate?
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To my shame, John, I didn't recall it. But having looked back I'm reminded how much work and time Liz put in. And she did a large part of the work which I recently suggested main parties should do for the elections in May 2014.
Having pleaded guilty, yer'onner, my mitigation was that I was pretty busy at the time knocking on doors and delivering leaflets both in Tottenham Hale and other wards.
But I particularly remember the videos because for Haringey at the time they broke genuinely new ground. And of course I remember Liz coming round to our home and being very patient with my partner Zena Brabazon who was standing in an election (for St Ann's) for the first time.
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