York Council mystery company beings to lift secrecy veil?

 

City of York trading hompageThe first public meeting of the “shareholder” group set up to monitor the performance of “York City Trading” will take place on 13th January.

The YCT Quango – which uses surplus Council staff resources to back-fill vacancies while also offering contract services to some outside organisations – attracted criticism last year when questions were raised about payments to some Directors.

A report to the group says that turnover for the company was up 6% on the equivalent period in 2014.

The report does not provide any indication of performance against financial targets. A board report is mentioned but is claimed to be “exempt” from publication.

So Taxpayers therefore still have no idea how well the company is actually performing

The last publicly published board minutes – on their web site – for the company cover a meeting held in July

York City Trading also promote a separate web site aimed at potential customers www.workwithyork.co.uk

Quango policing group publishes agenda for Monday meeting

The “Make it York” shareholders committee has finally published the agenda for its meeting on Monday.

That is only two working days before the meeting is due to start.

It gives residents who want to address the meeting only 24 hours to register to speak.

Supporters of retaining the Christmas carousel ride in Parliament Street were hoping to make their case to the panel of 5 Councillors although the short notice may deter them (they will be making representation to the full council meeting later in the week anyway)

There are only two items on the agenda.

Performance out-turn April to September 2015 click to enlarge

Performance out-turn April to September 2015 click to enlarge

Financial figures show income £82,000 below budget in the period up to July.

Expenditure is lower so the company was in balance at that early stage of the year. The out turn disguises a significant shortfall in Shambles market rent payments.

The second item relates to performance against target.

The Council continues to be sharply critcised for failing to set KPIs for the events programme and the Shambles Market activities that MIY now supervises.

In any event, most of the first quarter indicators are blank. Even the traditional tourism monitors are largely missing.

So will the committee see through the prevarication and challenge the  arrogant way that this organisation has gone about its business since April? 

We will wait and see.

 

 

City of York Ltd’s services to expand – another Quango set to spread its wings?

secret decisionsThe York Council’s Executive will be presented with a progress report by City of York Council’s trading organisation, City of York Ltd (CYT Ltd), at a meeting on 27 August.

The report provides limited information on the results of services traded under the “Work With York” brand, which include the supply of casual/interim staff, and supply teachers.

The report claims that a profit of “almost £300,000” was made in 2014/15, although how much of this was made through “internal trading” (“selling” services back to the York Council), is not revealed.

Much of the work is understood to be undertaken by a pool of former Council employees who otherwise would be redundant (e.g. saving on the costs of using Agency staff to fill temporary vacancies) .

The company is wholly owned by the York Council. It is currently governed by four Executive Directors. All are senior Council officials. A non Executive Director was also appointed (a Labour Councillor).

There is now a move to appoint “external” Directors. Such appointments are likely to be made  “behind closed doors”  by a four person “Shareholders committee” which is comprised of Councillors.

This committee will also review the companies business plan – a role currently undertaken by the Council itself. It is not obliged to meet in public or publish the agenda for its meetings. The proposed  “Shareholder Agreement” is entirely silent on the issue of transparency and accountability. 

The company is able to borrow money to fund its expansion plans but it is unclear where liability would rest in the event of a financial failure.

The Executive is being asked to remove “the requirement for formal consent from the Council for a number of specific matters including: incurring material expenditure or capital liabilities exceeding £10,000, sponsoring events or supporting charitable activities, paying certain remuneration, settling claims and approving the charging policy”. 

In a media release the Council says,

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Glass houses

Labour on public bodies

The national furore about a Labour peer being ousted – at the end of her term of office – from a role as head of OFSTED is likely to produce a “pots and kettles” response in York.

As reported a few months ago, the Chair of York Labour party was appointed to an influential local QUANGO last year.

Indeed the York Labour Party has a long history of trying to pack public bodies – including school governorships and NHS committees – with its supporters.

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Meanwhile when public service vacancies are advertised, there remains a suspicion that the process is window dressing.

We reported in December that a (volunteer) Chair for a new company which will “promote York” was being sought. The post was advertised over the holiday period – more or less guaranteeing a poor response.

The Council has now announced that the present Chair of Visit York has been appointed to the post.

The Council have failed to reveal how many applications there were for the position.

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Some taxpayers are now questioning the involvement that some York Council officials may have in shadowy “networking” organisations. In this case it is not the ubiquitous Freemasons, but rather, supposedly, educational organisations like “NESTA”  and  “Common Purpose”.

NESTA is run by the former head of policy in the Blair government. It is a charity ostensibly committed to developing technology based approaches to what they term “civic coding”. They recently recruited a couple of millionaire business people to become Trustees.

Common Purpose  provides leadership training courses.  It raised some eyebrows when implying that durable strategies, “leading beyond authority”,  could be implemented at local and national government level which transcended periods of democratic political change.

Both organisations have an elitist feel

Personalities associated with Common Purpose have been actively associated with the campaign for press freedom, perhaps explaining why media interest remains detached.

Of course, such bodies are nothing new.  During the last Labour government they tended to flourish in the public sector. That their operators have now apparently moved into the private and charitable sectors means that they may still be regarded as an income sinecure.

As always, participation by public sector officials in outside organisations, should be judged on how much value the average person in the street might expect to derive from them.  

If public expenditure is involved, then such benefits need to be quantified publicly and subject to independent scrutiny.