Ex Chief Exec - Dave Clark

[Guest Anonymous]

Arf arf. Weell, will du chaannel money itae me campaign 'n we'll git da nixt Troot leadership up 'n oot daer fur 'da filty proletariat' tae 'channel dir towts' and wi'll be riht athi'da penga fur shoor!!!!

 

Ahm shure tae gee onybody a damn gud backhaander dat helps me git tae da tap

Right. A challenge is a challenge.

Shetlinkers (and that's all of you grumbling, negative, anti council, anti government, etc.. posters)

Let's start a campaign to elect Trout to the SIC.

Given that he's politically neutral on most subjects, fairly rational on some subjects, and never known to get his Wills in a twist, I reckon he'd be perfect as a candidate in the forthcoming Lerwick South By-Election.

[islandhopper]

However, when Wills calls him on allegedly issuing threats of violence by phone, then Clark is all too happy to suddenly hide behind a "just an employee" status to file a retalitory complaint.

 

Looking from outside I would like to point out at just two points:

 

i) Mr Clark is not that "just an employee" he wants to be. He is quite simply one of the best paid council officials in the whole of Scotland ... for a community of that size: in the whole of Europe ...

 

ii) Over here - in Germany - his job of being a well paid leading council official would be a "political job" and Mr Clark would have been fired some weeks ago: Not for the phone call - whether he did make it or not - but simply for his behaviour in the aftermath: the way he treated the press, the public ... the way "he lives in his town hall" ... (if I take only those facts into account which were reported by all of the Shetland based media in between).

 

It is not my interest or job to accuse Mr Clark or to defend Mr Wills but I do like the islands and I do hope that some of the so called "senior councillors" will take there job seriously ... and as an "European" I really don't want to see my Shetland Islands as a province within the vicinity of Mr Berlusconi's Italy. I've always thought that there must be some differences ...

[shetlander]

Am I perhaps missing a point here?

Did any of the Shetlinkers, who are so quick to criticise, vote for the councilors who are currently representing them?

If you did, then you voted for the current situation. So quit complaining, bitching, and stirring. Stand for election to the council next time round, and see how you like it.

 

I'd like to think that would happen. But as usual come nomination time the moaning minnies will continue to sit on their backsides, whining about what an ass the last lot have made of it all whilst pondering and speculating as to who (other than them of course) will take the reins next time round. And give it a few months and the same folk will be girning and moaning about the new bunch, just like they always do. You will never win.

[Frances144]

I wonder if Shetland's favourite press - Private Eye - will notice?

[snow]

Ok guys I have a pot of stew to go with the council dumplings

[unlinkedstudent]

Ok guys I have a pot of stew to go with the council dumplings

 

Yeah but do you also want your egg(head)s fried or boiled?

[Ghostrider]

^^ Scrambled - It can't make them any worse than they are.

 

Although, if someone would poach them so that we were rid of them, so much the better.

[north]

The current situation demonstrates the continuing status quo of the ineffectual and incredible leadership of the SIC. The situation would appear to be as bad in the elected body as it is in the executive.

 

For years now, the organization lurches from one farcical dilemma to the next - each more embarrasing and ridiculous than the last. The money and resources wasted in these ludicrous debacles exceed any positive traction that might be gained in any of the well executed and managed operations that do exist.

 

It is time for the elected members of the SIC to take control of the situation by replacing the current leadership of the council. The Chief Executive and the Convener appear to each be running their areas of control in Shetland as an autocracy; trampling on the very fundamentals of democracy, sensibility, common sense and sound judgement.

 

Is there no-one within the elected body that has the necessary capabilities of leadership to organise an alternative grouping of inspired and progressive thinkers to change the culture and mechanics of the SIC to one which decisively governs with fiscal responsibility in the very best interests of the people of Shetland? If there is not, then the entire council needs to be replaced, because we know these people exist in Shetland and the electorate needs to have the opportunity to identify and elect them.

 

For years, Shetland has appeard more like a dismasted, rudderless ship with no Captain. It is time for a strong leadership to lead the drive toward decisive management and organisation, to utilize the capabilities and resources of Shetland for the benefit of the people of Shetland.

 

From the inside, Shetland might appear as if it is run like a provincial backwater by poorly qualified elected representatives, who just go with the flow.

 

From the outside, in the larger global view, it appears to be more akin to a typical third world oil producer - a domestic banana republic.

 

It is time for some serious change.

 

Anyone up to the job?

[PJ of Hildisvik]

Well said North!, things cannot remain as they are.

[Carlos]

There is of course the problem that the "good" decisions that they should make are the same ones that would be so unpopular that they could not get / stay elected.........

[Ghostrider]

^^ You're never going to please all of the people all of the time.

 

Its more than just about fudges and saving their own asses next election though. Its not just about yes/no decisions, its also decisons on things that are going to happen anyway, and have to happen. Take the AHS saga as an example, its rumbled on for more than a decade largely going nowhere, yet had someone seized it when it first came up and kept plugging at it, making sure all stakeholders were consulted at the earliest opportunity, all potential sites were rigourously reviewed, compared and costed, and it all fully debated and a final decison taken. End of, done deal,and move ahead to the next project. It could have been built and open a decade ago.

 

Instead of that its just lain around languishing, re-emerging occasionally, usually so long since its previous appearances times and people have moved on and its ended up in being treated more like a new project on most occasions than a work in progress. Until of course we now finally have a situation where there's finally enough push to move it forward, driven in no small part by the fact the old place is on its last legs, and its suddenly become apparent how many things should have been done and found out long ago, that haven't been, and living with the debacle that has ensued.

 

Leadership is about taking the initiative, motivating people to act, prodding people to get them to react, throwing the ideas out there and stimulating debate, brokering compromises that the majority are willing to live with, providing the impetus to keep the whole organisational machine trundling forward as fast as its collective liabilities will allow.

 

Yes, of course there will be unpopular decisions, but if you keep the machine ever moving there will be an equal weight of popular ones as well.The hallmark of a astute politician is to play down the unpolular ones, make them quickly, act on them quickly, bury them, and bring on a popular one as quickly as possible after it. It works in national politics, otherwise few of the hierachy there would save their seat, but on a local level they don't need to worry about such things at the moment, as the leadership haven't displayed much in the way of leadership qualities around the Town Hall in a very long time.

 

The most they have to fear losing their seat over is for allowing the whole show to fall down in a shambles around their ears while they did nothing.

[Para Handy]

The only thing that comes across in this whole fiasco, to me is that clark seems to be above the law.

 

How do you figure that one? He is the one who has admitted his mistakes, and has been dealt with accordingly.

 

 

As I said "it seems to me" This means Thats how it looks to me You spinner may think something else.

 

What else comes across to me is.

1 The right way to do it

2 The wrong way to do it

3 Mr. clarks way to do it

 

If mr. clark wants respect he has to earn it

It does not come automatically with the job title

I worked for the Shetland council for over 30 years

And made a lot of friend among the work force

The one’s I have heard speaking about the subject, not one has a good word to say about him.

And he has been in the job 4 months? If he had been in charge of British soldiers he would have been posted somewhere he could do no harm long ago

 

As one Para Trooper, walking in to Port Stanley, and found that the Royal Marines, had got there first said they had the biggest handy cap a soldier has And I quote “We had an officer with a mapâ€

That sums up Mr clark in a nut shell for me. I thank our lucky stars the he was not the head of the committee that came up with the Giraffe

[north]

Ghostrider said:

Yes, of course there will be unpopular decisions, but if you keep the machine ever moving there will be an equal weight of popular ones as well.The hallmark of a astute politician is to play down the unpolular ones, make them quickly, act on them quickly, bury them, and bring on a popular one as quickly as possible after it. It works in national politics, otherwise few of the hierachy there would save their seat, but on a local level they don't need to worry about such things at the moment, as the leadership haven't displayed much in the way of leadership qualities around the Town Hall in a very long time.

 

This is so absolutely correct. Decisions have to be made. Good decisions, bad decisions, tough decisions and the easy ones that everyone loves.

 

It is the same in everyday life or business. Decisions need to be reached for the right reasons. Affirmed and executed - this is what makes the whole world run every day.

 

There is however one additional category of decision - the badly made, bad decision, and this is what the SIC is all about on a daily basis. Whether it is hiring or firing people; building new schools or closing existing ones; recruiting consultants; changing direction mid-stream; fighting with other public bodies on infrastructural improvements; investing or spending money on ridiculous half-arsed plans; discovering major problems in projects once they are in so deep they can't back out or the insane system of investing money into poorly managed or planned businesses that have little or no hope of success and the investment just vapourises.

 

The entire SIC from top to bottom, needs to revamped with some serious changes to the leadership and the expectations in both the executive and the elected body.

 

The entire organisation is a disaster - and I say that with extreme caution, because there are many motivated and committed individuals within the group who deliver service every day within their part of the system. The SIC is however a large and complex mechanism with multiple divisions and operations - all of which require specialist attention and management.

 

It also requires an individual at the helm to drive and focus the organisation on quality, cost-effective, output. The inability to make good decisions is what has hobbled the SIC for years. Part of this is the neccesity to clean house in the elected membership and move into the future. Term limits are one way to achieve this, the other is what was tried a couple of years ago - pay them to leave.

 

The current elected and executive leadership have proven they are not up to the task at hand. If they won't resign, then someone needs to provide the leadership to make the decisions necessary for the people of Shetland.

 

Who is that person, or are the group to lead Shetland into the future?

[peeriebryan]

Part of this is the neccesity to clean house in the elected membership and move into the future. Term limits are one way to achieve this, the other is what was tried a couple of years ago - pay them to leave.

 

The current elected and executive leadership have proven they are not up to the task at hand. If they won't resign, then someone needs to provide the leadership to make the decisions necessary for the people of Shetland.

"the necessity to clean house in the elected membership", "Term limits", "pay them to leave", "If they won't resign..." ???

 

Regarding the elected members, why should they resign, be paid off or forced out? They've been elected by the people of Shetland through a democratic process "to make the decisions necessary for the people of Shetland"

[wilks]

Who is that person, or are the group to lead Shetland into the future?

 

It seems to me, from various sensible replies, that there are a number people on this site who could, and probably should, do the job.

North and Ghostrider to name but two.

 

So how about it?