News / Petition demands Clark to leave
A PETITION with 1,300 signatures demanding dismissal of Shetland Islands Council’s chief executive Dave Clark without a golden handshake was handed in to the reception of Lerwick Town Hall, this afternoon (Thursday).
The move comes on the eve of a meeting of the full council on midday on Friday to continue discussions on the fate of 44 year old Mr Clark, who has been in his post for just eight months.
The chief executive’s legal team, Edinburgh lawyers Morton Fraser, has been in negotiations with council lawyers, led by CoSLA chief executive Rory Mair, on the terms of parting company since the end of January.
Mr Mair will be in Shetland on Friday presenting a report that will be tabled at the meeting.
This afternoon, the driving force behind the petition, Lerwick man Ian Inkster, said he would have preferred to hand the petition directly to council convener Sandy Cluness.
But Mr Cluness said he had not been prepared to do that as he felt the petition on a issue concerning a member of staff was “inappropriate”
Mr Inkster said as chief executive Mr Clark had during his short period of reign brought Shetland into “disrepute” and “abused the privileges of his office”.
Among the woes listed in the petition are a “drinking party in his office, appointment of a close associate as an independent consultant, deletion of a senior council post without authority, consultation or compliance with Council procedures (…), and generally his conduct in his public and private life which has caused embarrassment at a local and national level to this community.”
Mr Inkster said the response to the petition had been “excellent” with just over 1,300 signatures collected in little more than a week.
And he refuted any suggestion that the group behind the petition were involved in a witch hunt or running a vendetta as suggested on a local radio discussion programme on Wednesday night.
“We feel Mr Clark has not done the job he was hired to do, and councillors didn’t bite the bullet and should have sacked him earlier.
“They had plenty of excuses to get rid of him. We feel the council should not pay any money when dismissing a member of staff who is not performing the way they expect.
“I hope we are not going to be disappointed and councillors will not ignore the petition. I also hope that the feelings expressed in this petition will have an impact on what is being discussed at Friday’s meeting,” he said.
Mr Inkster added that “in the wider sense” the petition could be read as a vote of no confidence in councillors.
Council convener Cluness said: “I didn’t want to accept a petition that relates to staff because that is hardly appropriate. We have a policy of not accepting petitions in relation to staff.”
He added that the petition will not become an item on the agenda of meeting on Friday, which will be held behind closed doors.
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