‘Foolish acts’ and a grandstand finish to a €200,000 ‘deal’
HUBERT MURPHY REPORTS ON A STORMY DRAFT BUDGET MEETING IN BARLOW HOUSE
THIS year, the town of Drogheda will have two pantomimes. One is in the TLT, the other, the Barbican, and strangely, both are adaptations of Sleeping Beauty. But at times, sitting through last week’s draft budget meeting of Louth CC, one could be forgiven for thinking a third theatrical performance had been added to the bill!
The protagonists were on two sides - the councillors of Drogheda and the four strong team from the council.
They had arrived in town with a copy of a budget to run the county for the next 12 months. It amounted to about €100m. But to get there, Chief Executive Joan Martin needed to find €1m in savings - or cuts.
Her first port of call was the Discretionary Budget. This amounts to about €1.5m per year and she was seeking €137,000 of it.
That mainly consisted of the personal allocations that councillors all over the county get to give to groups, clubs, organisations, and the likes. It can be a godsend for many like the tidy towns who might need €1,000 or €2,000 to complete a task, or maybe €500 for a flower bed or two.
This year, the local councillors got a total of €65,000 to spend - next year it was down to €20,000 - a hefty cut.
But would the councillors accept it - or come up with an alternative deal the Chief Executive couldn’t refuse?
The show began as it continued, Mayor Frank Godfrey welcoming the Chief Executive to Drogheda - adding that was despite the fact that at the last council meeting she vowed never to come back until she got a bit of respect from the local crew.
‘I’m here because I’m statutory obligated to be here for this budget process,’ she quickly replied.
He pinned his colours to the mast immediately, saying he didn’t want to see a reduction in the €65,000 because it would be a cut ‘ to the most vulnerable’ and ‘ would not be a good day’s work’.
‘ The sooner we get Drogheda Borough Council back the better. We ran our own business for hundreds of
THE SOONERWE GET DROGHEDA BOROUGH COUNCIL BACK THE BETTER. WE RAN OUR OWN BUSINESS FOR HUNDREDSOF YEARS
years and that’s no reflection on ththe staff who do their best,’ he continued. Joan Martin outlined her position. She was in town to listen to the views of the councillors but added she had sought a 15% increase in the property tax - which would have brought in an extra €1.4m - but that had not been accepted.
She had ‘ land loans’ to pay and €250,000 towards the homeless programme. ‘I have to find €1m, be it cuts in expenditure or increased income,’ she stated.
The property tax would have been the route she favoured. Then there’s commercial rates. She said the towns would not be increased but the county rates will. Pay parking was the only other possible fundraiser.
‘ The discretionary budget spending is €1.5m and that includes tidy towns funding, tidy estates, festivals, library books, etc, that’s all that’s left. I could cut €1m and that’s it but I don’t want to do that.’
Due to no increase in funding for a decade or more, ‘ the chickens had come home to roost,’ she remarked.
Then came a possible nugget of hope from Cllr Pio Smith. The parking rate for Drogheda had been reduced to €1 per hour about six weeks ago after a vote. He suggested raising it again to €1.20 and ringfencing the money (about €200,000 over a year).
The Chief Executive said there was nothing to stop the councillors doing that, although she wanted it be increased by 20c - without any set charge - and then ringfenced.
So could Drogheda be getting an extra €200,000 a year to spend, for the sake of losing €45,000 in its discretionary budget? A deal breaker?
Cllr Kevin Callan, who pushed for the reduction in pay parking to €1 an hour, was still waiting to see it implemented. He was told it was due to the council seeking legal opinion over the second part of the deal which was agreed - residents only parking on one side of the Windmill Road. It was hoped to have confirmation by the December meeting.
He then remarked that being presented with a cut in the discretionary budget - and little else - was a ‘foolish act’ by the council and wasn’t the place to start the budget process.
That drew an immediate response from the Chief Executive who insisted ‘After 41 and a half years in service and as chief executive, I take offence to being called a fool’.
Cllr Callan retorted, ‘I said it was a foolish act, in my opinion.’
The situation cooled and the drama continued, Cllr Tommy Byrne saying putting money towards footpaths was vital, Cllr Kenneth Flood feeling councillors were being ‘excluded’ from decisions, parking spaces taken away from the North Strand without consultation, for example.
Cllr David Saurin felt there was no consistency with decisions and they seemed to change from meeting to meeting.
Cllr Paul Bell questioned the housing budget from last year - which was agreed - and included measures like CCTV and ramps in places like Ballsgrove and Rathmullen to defend people against anti-social behaviour. But none had been completed.
He felt the councillors were ‘short on information’ in relation to the full budget.
Cllr Richie Culhane said they were ‘damned if they do and damned if they don’t’ but like Cllr Callan, asked why after six weeks, the €1 rate for parking hadn’t been introduced.
He asked why Drogheda should be €1.20 and Dundalk €1, Head of Finance Bernie Woods remarking that Dundalk had no free car parks and charged €2 and €3 for a full day while Drogheda’s two were free.
Cllr Frank Godfrey said they were being asked to do a ‘u-turn’ while Cllr Oliver Tully said ‘ this was the payback for reducing the pay parking,’ but Ms Woods said pay parking was not linked to this.
The Chief Executive said that to balance the budget, she might seek an increase beyond €1.20, ‘say €1.50, but that would be up to the members,’ she explained.
After 95 minutes of what Cllr Kenneth Flood described as ‘going around in circles’, the councillors then held a 10 minute recess, before returning and bringing Cllr Smith’s proposal of increasing pay parking to a maximum of €1.20 and ringfencing €200,000 for Drogheda accordingly, to a vote.
Councillors Bell, Tommy Byrne, Culhane, Smith and Tully voted yes, with Cllrs Joanna Byrne, Callan, Flood, Godfrey and Saurin voting no.
That left Mayor Godfrey with the casting vote and he voted no.
And then everyone stood up and left the stage. Show over.