Is it good management for the City Council to hire a director to assist the City Administrator with running the day-to-day affairs of the Council, but then the Councillor in charge of the director’s portfolio goes to the worksite every morning and task off the workers without the knowledge of the director? Is this what the UDP meant when one of their “senior sources” said that the elected officials do not have to consult anyone before taking a decision? Is this really the role of the Councillor?

Is it proper for the council to take decisions to promote and transfer workers without consulting with its senior managers responsible for personnel decisions and then blame poor personnel decisions on the senior managers when the decisions backfire on them? That is why the senior managers had resigned because the professional advice clearly is not needed and like the party has said, the Council does not have to consult anyone when taking decisions.

Is it proper for the Council to take a decision to have a memo removed from a worker’s file without consulting or hearing both sides of the story with the Internal Auditor and the worker who the memo was written to, especially when the Internal Auditor is asking the worker in the memo to account for Council finances? The Council took the decision, no questions asked of anyone. What very highhanded behaviour indeed!

Is it really the position of the UDP that elected officials do not have to consult anyone when taking decisions that affect the employees, Council and residents of the city? Is this how the UDP and Barrow plans to run the central government if the people make the mistake and elect them?

The UDP will tell you that these things are not big or important issues because they believe that if we do not raise them and they do not address them they will go away with time. But each of these issues speaks to the matter of good management and openness, transparency, and accountability in government, ideals the UDP like to spew. In the age of information and knowledge that we live in today, it is arrogant and high-handed for the UDP and its elected officials to behave this way.