FOI request re Dave Clark

[KOYAANISQATSI]

A brawl would suggest both parties reducing it to name calling. For my part; I only asked for clarification over some rather unfair sounding, sweeping generalisations made about Shetland. However any attempt, at keeping it lightsome was met with ever more fury.

[Spinner72]

Its just another example of that strange internet phenomenon where, when people have the chance to debate genuine topics openly in a way they will rarely/never get to do otherwise, they get it buggered up for them by the seemingly endless tribe of idiots who just can't understand basic logic as to what is acceptable and abide by the sites t&c's.

 

*sigh*

[JohanofNess]

^Very true spinner. Shetlink is the most heavily moderated forum I post on and on the one hand it keeps rampant trolling and slanging matches to a minimum it also means that some good points in a thread can't be answered because a thread has to be locked because of squabbling that usually ends up having little to do with the topic. Dave Clark is always going to be an emotive issue on Shetlink it's just a shame that people can't discuss it without having to have threads locked because of folk who should know better, if they behaved like that in public they'd be locked up for the night.

 

If people want a slanging match they should head to the IMDb one of the worst moderated forums I've ever been on you can slag each other til the cows come home and nobody will bat an eyelid.

[jz]

David Clark has another letter in the Shetland Times (website).

 

What a tangled web

 

As does Jonathon Wills Poetic injustice?

[Ghostrider]

^^ How long is it going to take for all concerned to realise that there no longer is any good "out". The moral high ground crumbled long since beneath the feet of all who's name has been in any way linked to Clark's appointment/severance, alleged AHS review irregularities, the little drinks party, the Assistant CE debacle, the alleged phone call, Judane etc and everything that's followed on from them.

 

The house of cards has long since been blown away by more hot air than Eyjafjallajokull has produced. Those who should have been talking wouldn't when they should have, most of them still aren't, and the ones who spoke then and the ones who are speaking now don't know the difference between when is the time to talk, and when is the time to have a bottleful of good old STFU. Everytime anyone in any way connected to any of it opens their mouth or puts pen to paper now, they're just digging the hole deeper, and adding yet another layer of tarnish to their own standing and reputation. It really doesn't matter any more who said or did what, as nobody did or said what they should have all of the time.

 

Nobody in any way connected with any of it comes even this far, never mind out the other end, smelling of roses. Every one has been seen and proven to have used "poor judgement" and taken "unwise" actions. If all concerned could see past their own egos and offer an unreserved apology to Shetland/Shetlander's for the way they've f***ed up, then sit down and shutup, we might just be able to draw that line under it Sandy is so desperate for, and start rebuilding. Every time one of the players adds yet another "I said, they said" letter/statement it just reopens the wounds and prolongs the agony for the rest of us.

 

It was a messy and un-necessary battle, no-one took part in it has managed to hold on to the honour they entered it with, now will somebody just put the walking wounded out of their misery, and out of sight and sound of the rest of us, so that the dead can be buried and business can re-commence.

[Spinner72]

Regarding Clark and Wills public letter exchanges, now that it is a personal matter and no longer costing us money, and is no longer a one sided exchange due to one abiding by legislation and one ignoring it, I see no harm in watching it unfold especially as it may provide interesting material to refer to when the "big report" is published at the end of the month.

 

One interesting thing is the way Clarks account of the "Great Wall Phone Call" matches the gossip version of the incident which all too quickly spread through the isles (and which can't be mentioned here for obvious reasons). What that means of course, if anything, is up to the individual

[Ghostrider]

^^ I don't think the big report will be worth tuppence, we already know enough to declare everyone named guilty of less than perfect conduct, and not fit to be doing anything than making apologies and performing damage limitation. The longer this goes on and the more often one of them opens their mouth only contributes to how thickly they, and by default us, get tarred.

[gavva]

IMO Mr Clark is entitled to every penny which he was given. Let's not forget Mr Clark did not apply for the CEO position he was headhunted. The reasons for this were because of CV? No! But because of his lineage! Who headhunted Mr Clark? Our sorry lot of councillors that's who!

 

Mr Clark was then interviewed by a selection of councillors? NO! He was interviewed by all of the councillors! IMO this in itself should have rang alarm bells in the chubby chappies head that this lot of councillors were an incompetent bunch. When have you ever heard of someone being interviewed by a host of folk like that?...... Total Madness!!!!

 

The assistant position was deleted by Mr Clark? So no other councillor agreed to this post being deleted? Come on...... I think not!!!

 

Then when things started going wrong and the man who did not have the credentials to do the job in the first place got himself in brown stuff..... where were the sorry lot that got him into the mess in the first place? Leaking to the press, muttering and gossiping and pointing the finger in order to move the blame away from the real guilty parties. THEM!!!!

 

Yes Mr Clark was entitled to all the money he recieved but it should have been paid from the purses of the incompetent lot that put him in the position in the first place.

[Ghostrider]

....Mr Clark did not apply for the CEO position he was headhunted.

 

He Was???? :shock:

 

CITATION NEEDED!

 

IMO this in itself should have rang alarm bells in the chubby chappies head that this lot of councillors were an incompetent bunch.

 

I think his mistake was to overestimate the depth of their incompetence. Clearly he didn't factor in the one or two who are awake for a little while occasionally, as they're the ones who caught on to his despotic tendencies.

 

So no other councillor agreed to this post being deleted? Come on...... I think not!!!

 

It on record that Clark was given "permission" to delete the assistant CE post by an "inner circle" which included councillors. The problems seem to have been a) They gave him permission to do something that they didn't have authority to allow him to do, and even if they did, it wouldn't have mattered, as his position did not have authority to do it, regardless whether he had permission or not. Or something like that....and The membership of and the powers held by those "inner circle" members appears on current information to be so loosely defined that they are going to slip away like it never happened.

 

If I could have a twinge of sympathy for Clark, which I can't as Hell is far too warm yet to allow it, it would be that on current information it would seem he was set up and stabbed in the back by that "inner circle" when they sent him to sack Shannon. But, he's a big boy, and should have independently satisfied himself that it was within his remit to remove the position, and that he was following the laid down procedure for doing such things, before he proceed, rather than crashing on on no more than the nod of a few who may or may not have had a clue what they were talking about.

 

Then when things started going wrong and the man who did not have the credentials to do the job in the first place got himself in brown stuff..... where were the sorry lot that got him into the mess in the first place?

 

His stongest backers were conspicious by their stony silence, and still are.

 

Yes Mr Clark was entitled to all the money he recieved but it should have been paid from the purses of the incompetent lot that put him in the position in the first place.

 

Mr Clark would have been well advised to have quickly vanished without a whimper, or a penny, and left the 22 "wise men" to clean up their own mess. He'd drawn eight months salary (Approx £66,666 gross) for zero, zilch, nadda thing unless hanging around the Town Hall on occasion during that time. It was approx £66,666 more than he was worth.

 

I do agree though, that if any money had to be paid, councillors and officials who contributed to the end game should have personally footed the bill, not public funds.

[JohanofNess]

Regarding Clark and Wills public letter exchanges, now that it is a personal matter and no longer costing us money.

 

See what you are saying but Wills is an elected official do you not think there should be a certain level of decorum in his behaviour. Clark is letting rip after months of not being able to answer I can kind of understand him venting but Wills would be all the better for keeping quiet.

 

I do hope the details of the deal come out though I don't see why the FOI request should be turned down, public money has been spent by a local authority because of fairly substantial acts of mismanagement. Clark has the money now I doubt he'd be paying it back and since he's landed on the Isles again he'll be putting so much of it back into the local economy at the very least, how wise it is to land back on the isles after his short tenure as Chief Exec well time will definitely tell.

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

I watch with a mild and distrustful interest of what is now being played out in public, the penmanship duel of clark vs wills.

 

I would hope they are educuted enough not to write anything which would lay them open for libel, well one of them anyway.

 

But surely a real duel would be more fitting of true gentlemen, say perhaps a joust in the gilbertson park?

But it would have to be mopeds or small motorcycyles, as I am not into animal cruelty and dont think our native horses would take the strain....

Charge to watch- £25.00 at the gate to see the show, I reckon you would near get the deposit on a new high school with those takings.

 

P.s The loser must then be forced to eat whatever it was he had for his lunch 48 hours ago by the winner , that actual meal in it newly constituted form.

[Kaleidoscope Disco]

Why did the people whom employed the guy in the first place, not get reamed for not checking out his gash blagged C.V.?

 

These people are the ones who led us, the tax payers, to loose the money.

He only accepted a job offered to him, which he obviouly wasn't capable of doing.

 

They are the ones who should be in the firing line.

 

You wouldn't employ a fish meal boat cleaner to be a brain surgeon just because his C.V. "looked " spot on, you would check it out and speak to the referees!

 

This is another " typical " council blunder.

 

Where has the old school sense gone?

 

Maybe it was shifted when the south came north, like the sheep clearances.

 

I say BNP Shetland stylee! AYYYYYE!!!

[Infiltrator]

David Clark has another letter in the Shetland Times (website).

 

What a tangled web

 

Some people just don't know when to keep their head down

 

Has all this detail been made public before?, I haven't read the full report yet.

[Para Handy]

The man is just a http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/animal/donkey.gif

[jz]

And so it continues ...

 

Josie says public hearing will reveal all