Chichester District Council (CDC) is under the spotlight this week after Deputy Chief Executive Rob Benny admitted in evidence to the Standards Board for England that CDC had authorised the monitoring of email communications from Cllr. Taff Davies because it was believed that "when he was re-elected to the Council in May 2003, {Cllr. Davies} had a predisposition to be critical of the Council IT policy and provision". Mr. Benny said this was "normal precaution where there were concerns about the conduct of a member".
Cllr. Davies will appear before the Adjudication Panel of the Standards Board for England on Wednesday charged with breaching CDC's Code of Conduct by writing sarcastically to Officers on the subject of the Council's implementation of e government systems, and losing his temper at a meeting to discuss his unresolved nine-month old complaint that he could not gain access to online documents in the Council. At that meeting Cllr. Davies was told that on the Council's load balancer system his 'home internet address' had been assigned to a malfunctioning server, which was why he couldn't get access to online documents. The Officers at the meeting would not explain to Cllr. Davies how and why they had resolved ownership of the static IP address that he used in his office at home, and why the assignation was permanent.
The Adjudication Panel hearing is the culmination of long standing row in Chichester about the Council's £11.5 million e government programme. In 2004 Cllr. Davies ran foul of CDC Officers' e-gov policies by deciding to set up his own Councillor's websites, including in the design a logo based on the headed notepaper he had been given to use as Member. His decision to set up his own websites followed a decision by Chief Executive John Marsland to prevent Cllr. Davies from presenting to the Council a proposal by a constituent to establish a Community Internet Server on which all Councillors would be able to establish a web presence.
After Cllr. Davies' websites went online, Officers attempted to shut them down by threatening his ISP, local company DuckDriver Ltd., with legal action for breach of copyright because they permitted Davies to display the Council's logo, and allowed links to photos of Councillors on the CDC website. It was also alleged that Cllr. Davies had secured an improper financial advantage by receiving his website services free from the company. On both www.chiguide.net and www.shortal.com, the services used by Cllr. Davies, websites are available free to anyone who wants one. The company has since provided free websites for all CDC Members, though they have been officially advised by the Council's solicitor, Mike Kelley, not to use them because of the allegations of copyright irregularities.
In the complaint to the Standards Board for England, Cllr. Davies was accused of having an improper relationship with DuckDriver, supporting a company that was in a legal dispute with the Council, and bringing the Council into disrepute by publicly criticising its e government delivery. The Ethical Standards Officer has recommended to the Adjudication Panel that these allegations be dismissed.
Commenting on the row, David Hopson, DuckDriver's CIO and a member of Chichester's Local Democracy Action Group, said, "What we have in Chichester has more in common with colonial administration than local democracy. The natives are permitted to elect representatives, but on no account will Officers allow Members to affect the smooth running of the Council. There seems to be a genuine fear that IT and the web in particular, will rock the boat by allowing citizens to become more involved in the running of their community's affairs. Officers blacklist and bounce email from correspondents who criticise the Council or propose alternatives to established policies and strategy – something which happened to me of course."
There's a huge amount of tax payers' money being spent on e government but what is exposed here is a Yes-Minister story where civil servants are perpetually undermining the policies of their democratically elected political masters. It is difficult not to suspect that there are vested interests here too. The cost and scale of the technology deployed by Chichester would support a user base that is 10 or even 20 times the size of the population here. So who is advising them?"
In my view the treatment of Cllr. Davies as a critic of what's been happening, has been abominable," he added.
Chichester's Electronic Government team has an establishment of 22 posts, including three who work full time on the Council's website. The installation, maintenance and support of CDC's hardware and software are out sourced.
The installed e-government systems have resulted in a critical power supply problem in the Council's main offices in the city centre. A recent brownout and failure of the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) brought CDC's systems down for many hours, and it was several days before there was a full recovery.
Last summer the Council removed records of the E government Panel from the online document library on the grounds that as a Panel rather than a Committee such records should not be made publicly available.
Chichester District Council has failed to meet national e government targets in respect of website and internet provision for elected Members.
ENDS
Adjudication Panel Reference No.: APE0348
Contacts and websites:
Chichester District Council website – www.chichester.gov.uk
Rob Benny, Deputy Chief Exec, CDC - rbenny@chichester.gov.uk
Cllr Taff Davies, taffdavies@witterings.co.uk
Chichester Local Democracy Action Group – http://http://www.shortal.com/chidemocracy/contact.html
Adjudication Panel for England - carl.tate@adjudicationpanel.co.uk - Tel: (01423) 532962
Standards Board for England - david.prince@standardsboard.co.uk
