MAYORAL PACT IS BROKEN
LAWLOR TO BE DENIED A SECOND TERM AFTER KELLY DECIDES TO WITHDRAW FROM THE MAYORAL PACT, CONCEDING HE WAS WRONG TO JOIN LAST YEAR
ONE year after it was agreed upon and signed off on by four of the seven councillors in the Wexford District, the agreed mayoral pact is in tatters after one of the councillors has removed himself from the agreement.
While it was anticipated that the current Mayor, Labour’s Cllr George Lawlor, would retain the mayoral chains for a second term from June 29, it now appears that the pact has been broken and instead, Cllr Leonard Kelly is set to become the next Mayor of Wexford.
Upon their election to the local authority last year, a pact was agreed between Cllr Lawlor, Cllr Kelly, Cllr Maura Bell and Cllr Garry Laffan. Under the pact, each would take a turn as Mayor, with a name supposedly drawn out of a hat for who would serve a second term to make up the five years. As it turned out, it was Cllr Lawlor whose name emerged. It was subsequently agreed that he would serve the first two years as Mayor, followed by Cllr Kelly, Cllr Laffan and Cllr Bell in a pact signed by all four councillors on June 10 and 11 of last year.
However, with Cllr Lawlor’s first term as Mayor now up, it has emerged that Cllr Leonard Kelly has decided to withdraw from the agreement and it appears that he will join with those left on the outside of the pact to vote against Cllr Lawlor serving a second term.
Under this plan, Cllr Kelly, Cllr Tom Forde, Cllr Davy Hynes and Cllr John Hegarty will vote for Cllr Kelly to serve the next stint as Mayor, followed by Cllr Hegarty,
Cllr Laffan and Cllr Bell.
The logic in this system is that the five elected representatives who polled highest in last year’s local elections will each get a turn as Mayor, in line with a ‘d’hondt system’ suggested by Cllr Hynes prior to the last election. For Cllr Kelly, though, it does mean backing out of the pact he signed last year, something which he received some heavy criticism for online at the time. The independent councillor says that it’s nothing personal against Cllr Lawlor, but he feels it was a mistake to agree to the pact in the first place.
‘In the weeks after being elected to Wexford County Council last year I went with an agreement to elect future Mayors and Deputy Mayors of Wexford, one which I believe was exclusionary in nature,’ he said. ‘Last month I informed my six fellow councillors that I felt I had made a mistake by consenting to it, and that I was removing myself from it.
‘These forms of agreement are commonplace in politics and benefit the members, as this agreement would have benefited me. It’s not commonplace to break such an agreement but neither my head or my heart will allow me to abide by it, I was wrong to join it and the only way to rectify my mistake is to no longer agree to carry out prearranged voting and remove myself from the initial agreement.
‘In Wexford the election of the honourable roles of Mayor and deputy Mayor is fairer if all the
THE KNIVES ARE OUT FOR ME. THIS IS ABOUT STOPPING ME FROM SERVING A SECOND TERM. PEOPLE ARE JUST OUT TO GET ME, DESPITE THE FACT THAT I TOPPED THE POLL WITH NEARLY A THOUSAND VOTES MORE THAN THE NEXT CANDIDATE
seven borough councillors have an opportunity to be elected to positions,’ he concluded. ‘By removing myself from the agreement made last year, this may be facilitated.’
Cllr Lawlor, now seemingly the outgoing Mayor, believes however that Cllr Kelly’s change of heart is solely to prevent him serving a second term.
‘The idea initially was to create a left of centre pact,’ said Cllr Lawlor. ‘On that basis it would be myself and Maura Bell (our party got 35% of the vote in town) and I invited Leonard Kelly and Garry Laffan to join with us.’
Independent councillor David Hynes says that he had initially been approached by Cllr Lawlor to join the pact, but had refused on a point of principle when one of the signatories would serve two
terms rather than allowing Sinn Féin’s Cllr Tom Forde to join. Cllr Lawlor agrees that Cllr Hynes was approached, but when he refused, the pact was put together with the two Labour councillors, Cllr Kelly and Cllr Laffan (FF).
‘It required four votes when there was seven seats,’ Cllr Lawlor explains. ‘With the other three being new to this, I was asked to take the first year as Mayor, which I agreed to do. It didn’t suit me to go first, but I agreed. Then we got together in The Riverbank House Hotel to draw a name out of the hat for who would serve a second term. Cllr Kelly drew the name out and it happened to be mine. I’ve no doubt if Cllr Kelly’s name came out in the draw to serve two terms, we wouldn’t be having this conversation and there’d be no problem.’
With Lawlor now set to lose the mayoral chains at the end of the month, he has blasted Cllr Kelly for going back on a signed agreement.
‘I suppose it should come as no surprise really,’ he said. ‘Cllr Kelly has flip-flopped on every political decision he’s made since the start. First he was independent, then he was a member of the Social Democrats, then he was independent again, now it seems he’s trying to be Green. Personally, I can only be happy that my word is good and if I make an agreement I stick to it. I believe this shows the character of the man. His word is not his bond. If you haven’t your word in this game, you’ve nothing.’
When put to Cllr Lawlor that perhaps the reason for Cllr Kelly’s change of heart was to favour the ‘D’Hondt system’ with each of the top five polling candidates getting a turn as Mayor, he was dismissive. It was noted that councillors David Hynes and Tom Forde were in favour of this system, despite the fact that it would rule them out of getting a turn with the mayoral chains themselves.
‘I think that just goes to show that the knives are out for me and this is about stopping me from serving a second term,’ Cllr Lawlor said. ‘It seems that people are just out to get me, despite the fact that I topped the poll in Wexford with nearly a thousand votes more than the next candidate. Look, that’s politics. What is clear though, is that Cllr Kelly has obviously been working on this for months behind the scenes. He just wants me out, even though he was due to be Mayor next year anyway.’