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The political weather in Carmarthenshire promises to be every bit as stormy next week as the real thing.

Council leader Kevin Madge (Lab) is likely to face one of the most challenging weeks of his long political career. To put it kindly, Kevin has few if any obvious talents apart from his ability to survive and cling on to the greasy pole. Now it looks as though his instinct for survival has abandoned him.

According to what is said to be a very good source from within the ruling Labour Cabinet in Swansea, Kev was phoned by David Phillips, the Labour leader of Swansea council, on the day the Wales Audit Office published its reports, advising him in no uncertain terms to suspend Mark James.

Like the Wales Audit Office's advice, that was ignored, and Kev nailed his colours to the mast with a series of attacks on opposition politicians and press releases defending "the Chief", as Linda Rees Jones refers to Mark James in her e-mails.

Several of last week's bizarre press releases were issued in the name of the Executive Board, which is headed by Kevin Madge and which includes other luminaries such as Meryl Gravell and Pam Palmer. Collective responsibility is the order of the day, it seems.

At the end of last week Keith Davies AM (Lab, Llanelli), having alerted us to the threat posed by unregistered hair dressers, finally got round to throwing his hat into the ring with a call for the suspension of the chief executive. Meanwhile the Carmarthenshire Labour Party is understood to be receiving a lot of unwelcome attention from Labour HQ, which is worried about what all of this is doing to voters.

One of the rumours doing the rounds is that Kevin Madge will now perform a U-turn early this week, and suspend "the Chief" before an expected announcement from the police.

That is unlikely to be enough to save his skin or the hides of Meryl Gravell and Pam Palmer who have so often and so aptly been described as the leaders of the political wing of the council's elite officers.

If that was not enough, he also faces a council meeting on Wednesday when various interesting points are likely to crop up. One of them will be the minutes of the Executive Board held on 6 January when Kevin Madge went on the rampage about the libel indemnity.

Another treat is a presentation of the Housing Revenue Account's 30 year business plan, another exercise in Death by Powerpoint designed to use up time available for holding to account a council which can't plan ahead for more than 30 minutes at the moment.

Councillors will also be presented with a petition calling on the council to help Llandeilo get its own swimming pool. Anyone who has been past the site of the new £30 million school across the river at Ffairfach will know that the town has suddenly gained several swimming pools thanks to flooding and that most unusual phenomenon, a wet Welsh winter.

Despite the enormous cost of the school (being built to, um, save money), there isn't enough for a swimming pool.

Residents and teachers at nearby Tregib school still cannot believe the County Council's insistence despite all the warnings on building the new school on a flood plain close to the river.

Last week Carmarthenshire County Council's press office published an extraordinary statement attacking the Wales Audit Office, and it appended an exchange of e-mails between its acting Head of Law, Mrs Linda Rees Jones, and Mr Geraint Norman, who represents the Wales Audit Office in Carmarthen.

The e-mails cover the period from January to August 2012, and the council is claiming that they show the WAO changed its mind over the lawfulness of the libel indemnity.

The WAO has responded by saying that it stands by its report, and that the correspondence published is selective, the implication being that the e-mails were carefully chosen to try to show the auditors in an unfavourable light.

Something which struck several readers was that the exchange begins with an e-mail from Geraint Norman headed "Private and Confidential". The e-mail is dated 20 January 2012, which was a couple of days before the Executive Board met to approve the libel indemnity, and what emerges is that the WAO had grave concerns about what the council was doing and urged it to take independent legal advice.

The subsequent twists and turns in the saga need not detain us here, but publication raises the question of whether the council sought permission to publish correspondence marked "Private and Confidential". It would seem not.

Carmarthenshire County Council is notorious for its lack of openness and transparency, but those of us who have been campaigning and arguing for greater openness recognise that public officials sometimes need to be able to talk to each other privately, and that there has to be trust between them if sensitive and difficult issues are to be resolved.

The message this sends to other public bodies, the public and commercial interests is that you need to be very careful in your dealings with the council, and that you cannot trust the authority.

In this case there is a strong public interest in disclosure, but selective disclosure by one party to the dispute only increases the damage to public confidence.

There is very much more information which needs to be published, including the advice provided by Mr Timothy Kerr QC to the council on the chief executive's pension arrangements, which the council refused to show to the Wales Audit Office.

Even more interesting is the report produced by Mrs Rees Jones which went before the Executive Board on 23 January 2012. The report was and remains exempt from publication, and there are strong suspicions that it was "sexed up". Why has Mrs Rees Jones not released that?

Also relevant to this sorry saga is all of the internal correspondence which passed between Mrs Rees Jones, the chief executive and others.

The council is adamant that Mr James had no input into the report, but at least one e-mail exists showing that Mrs Rees Jones wanted to meet him to discuss the report before it went to the Executive Board.

There is a great deal at stake here for Mr James and Mrs Rees Jones, both personally and professionally, and this is territory which should properly be the subject of a police investigation, rather than a public slanging match, and the police need to move quickly to secure such evidence as still exists.

The majority of elected councillors have never had any say in what has happened, and the likelihood is that they will find themselves on the sidelines watching events unfold like the rest of us. However one of the things they can begin to get to grips with is the operation of the council's press office, which has played a central role in this and so many other scandals.

Attempts recently by Cllr Darren Price (Plaid) and others to gain an insight into the workings of the press office and who is involved in producing and authorising press releases were blocked from on high.

Recent events show that tackling the source of so much that has brought the authority into disrepute in recent years has to be a priority.

Footnote

The council's sudden discovery of the joys of transparency has its limits. The council refused a freedom of information request from Jacqui Thompson asking it to disclose correspondence with Towy Community Church on the grounds that it would cost too much to dig all the stuff out. The council was over-ruled by the Information Commisisoner, so it then refused on the grounds that it was a vexatious request. This time the ICO has upheld the council's decision, largely it seems because of the verdict of the libel case.

Jacqui has most likely reached the end of the road on that one, but any other members of the public who feel that it is in the public interest that we know more about the relationship between the evangelical sect and the council might want to try their hand.

The advice would seem to be to limit your requests to a relatively short period of time (e.g. a year), and not have a history of upsetting the council.

As we follow the daily twists and turns in the crisis enveloping Carmarthenshire County Council, it is easy to forget that things are not much better next door in Pembrokeshire, where the council leadership and the chief executive, Bryn Parry Jones, are under fire for what the Wales Audit Office considers to be unlawful pension arrangements for a couple of its senior officers.

Pembrokeshire is not exactly famous for being a shining example of an open, democratically accountable local authority. When the auditor's damning report on the pension arrangements was published the council leader, Jamie Adams, was away on holiday in South Africa. Now he's back, and the the council has moved quickly to arrange an extraordinary meeting of the full council to discuss the report next week. According to the BBC, the meeting will be held on St Valentine's Day.

Both councils were given 30 days by the WAO to set up meetings to discuss the reports. Pembrokeshire will get to discuss the scandal two weeks earlier than Carmarthenshire, which will hold its meeting on the last possible date allowed by the WAO.

Like Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire also has a lively council blogging cottage industry, and it is with some disappointment that this blog has to note the complete lack of gratitude on the part of our neighbours for the generous assistance Carmarthenshire has provided to help the junta in Haverfordwest combat the outrageous accusations made by the WAO.

It is not too late for Cllr Jacob Williams and Old Grumpy to recognise that it was Carmarthenshire that introduced Pembrokeshire to Mr Timothy "Genius" Kerr QC.

What a pity that neither council has so far seen fit to share Mr Kerr's advice on the pensions arrangements with elected councillors, the public or even the Wales Audit Office.

It has been an extraordinary week in Carmarthenshire, and more dramatic developments are expected in the next few days. Here is the latest.

Update

Keith Davies (Lab), the AM for Llanelli has called for the immediate suspension of Mark James (South Wales Guardian reports). In his interview Keith Davies says that his primary concern is over the pension scandal.

This intervention, which has been rumoured for a few days, will probably turn out to be the end of the road for the beleaguered chief executive because it will make it easier for some Labour councillors to break ranks with Kevin Madge and vote with Plaid.

Rhodri Glyn Thomas (Plaid), the AM for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, has responded to Mr Davies's comments:
 

Jacqui Thompson

At last month's stage managed meeting of the Executive Board Kevin Madge used the occasion to claim, among other things, that "we tried for an out of court settlement" in the libel case to give the impression that Jacqui Thompson had rejected the council's attempts to secure a compromise. Note the use of "we" to describe a case which in theory at least was an action involving Mark James as a private individual.

In her blog, Jacqui has now responded as follows:

I was threatened with the counterclaim in November 2011 if I did not settle on the council's terms, whether the Exec Board were aware of this, or even the auditors, I don't know. Further negotiations leading up to Christmas 2011 led to an agreement to settle the case on agreed mutual terms. However, this agreement failed to materialise after the council refused to respond.


Labour

There are rumours of troop movements and the sound of heavy artillery being moved into place in preparation for a "big announcement" on Monday, with intervention from Party HQ. Will Kev be heading off for an unplanned winter sunshine cruise very soon?

Meanwhile, after wobbling about a bit in the last few days, Calum Higgins, Labour's great white hope for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, last night came out on Pawb a'i Farn (see S4C Clic) in support of Kev and backed his decision to keep those responsible for what the WAO terms unlawful decisions in their jobs.

Extraordinary Meeting

It is rumoured that the council leadership has decided to engage the services of its favourite QC, Mr Timothy "Genius" Kerr, to present its case to councillors on 27 February.

Welsh Government

Several local residents have written to Lesley Griffiths (Lab), Minister for Local Government, asking her what she plans to do about the best council in Wales.

All have received near identical replies which take a page and a quarter to say "nothing". She says she welcomes the WAO reports and believes that they will help improve governance in some areas, but responsibility really lies with local councillors.

In response to requests to put Carmarthenshire into special measures, Ms Griffiths says that she can only act if the Auditor General for Wales recommends intervention.

The Police

More public minded citizens have written to the police with information and requests for an urgent investigation. Cneifiwr understands that the boys in blue are now taking a very close interest in what is happening on Jail Hill.

Another Complaint

Cllr Siân Caiach has written to the the council's ironically named Democratic Services department (headed by no less a personage than Mrs Linda Rees Jones, the council's very busy acting Head of Law) asking them to pass on the following complaint:

"Dear Press Office,

Your press release yesterday beginning "Councillors and officials ..........say they are bitterly disappointed and frustrated at misinformation being circulated", which goes on to imply that the Councillors are all supportive of your view that the Wales Audit Office are possibly misinformed, incompetent and completely wrong about the illegal payments judged to have been made to our chief executive.

Yes, we are instructed to discuss the reports within 28 days but you insist on representing this meeting as merely an opportunity to show that the Wales Audit Office are mistaken about these matters by persuading the majority of 74 councillors that our officers are right and the Government's auditors are wrong. Our officers have already had the opportunity to make their case against the draft report, and the Wales Audit office has confirmed their initial opinion. 
 
I presume you are instructed by the Council Leader, Kevin Madge, and in future I ask that Councillors are not mentioned in general, but by name.

I read the reports and the supplemental documents circulated to all Councillors. My conclusion was different to that of the Council Leader . The issues are not just related to the payments, but also to the fact that the majority of Councillors were either not informed at all as in the case of the pension payments, or misinformed as in the Libel Indemnity Case. This case is also critical and important as it appears to be an attempt by our council to bypass the law of defamation by using an officer as a proxy to issue a libel counter claim, something a Council cannot do. If this were legal any council with a compliant officer could sue any member of the public in this way, using public funds. Clearly, in my view, an affront to democracy.

I have decided, taking into account the prevailing view of my constituents and using my own knowledge and judgement, to request the Chief  Constable to initiate an investigation based on the Wales Audit Office findings, into whether or not there has been misconduct in Public Office.  The elected Councillors are ultimately responsible for the proper conduct of the Authority. As an elected Councillor I believe the proper course of action is for an investigation into how and why these situations occurred.

I am therefore not "bitterly disappointed and frustrated at the misinformation being circulated around the recent public interest report issued by the Wales audit office". I believe the WAO have issued this report after a careful examination of the facts and am unlikely to be bitterly disappointed by "misinformation" you have not shared with me. Any Councillors and Officers endorsing press releases should be named.  Please do not make reference to "councillors" in generality again without contacting us."

Only a few days ago Carmarthenshire County Council issued a brief statement saying that it would have to give the auditor's reports careful consideration in due course, and that it would not be appropriate to comment further until such time.

Within hours of putting that out it issued the first of what has become a daily bombardment of increasingly aggressive press releases. The latest came out of nowhere yesterday, in response to nothing, attacking the Wales Audit Office.

Today the council followed up the press release by publishing what it says is the correspondence it had with the WAO which it believes shows that it is the maligned party. As with the QCs' reports published earlier this week, it actually makes matters worse and raises new questions about the judgement and conduct of Mrs Linda Rees Jones, among other things.

In one e-mail she tells the WAO that in her view opinions voiced by Adam Speker, Mark James's barrister in the libel trial, constitute independent legal advice. Legal advice they may be, but by no stretch of the imagination was a barrister acting for James in person an independent source of legal advice.

The Wales Audit Office has now replied, saying that the correspondence published today is selective (see BBC report here).

Selective and misleading statements, bullying, threats and attacks on the integrity of everyone from members of the public, MPs and AMs to public watchdogs such as the Ombudsman for Public Services: none of this will come as any surprise to many people in Carmarthenshire. The only surprise is that Mark James, Kevin Madge and the rest have convinced themselves that they are so immune from being held to account that they are now conducting their battles in public on a national stage.

Driving to work earlier this evening Cneifiwr was listening to BBC Radio Cymru's main early evening new programme when it announced that within the last few minutes another angry statement had come in from Carmarthenshire County Hall. The presenter seemed genuinely taken aback at the tone of the latest press release, and commented that it showed that the rift between the council and the Wales Audit Office was deepening.

The announcement came immediately after an interview with Keith Davies AM (Lab. Llanelli) whose main concern at the moment is apparently the need to bring in regulation of hairdressers. Unfortunately the BBC did not take the opportunity to ask him for his thoughts about what is happening in Carmarthen, but there are muffled whispers that there are stirrings of discontent within the Labour ranks.


Another mystery is what the MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Simon Hart (Con), thinks about this. Perhaps he's too busy fox hunting.

In the meantime, here is the latest rant from the Ministry of Spin.

Councillors and officials at Carmarthenshire County Council say they are bitterly disappointed and frustrated at misinformation being circulated around the recent public interest report issued by the Wales Audit Office.

As such, they have today published correspondence between themselves and the Wales Audit Office in order for people to judge for themselves as to what has actually taken place, ahead of the extraordinary council meeting which has been called to debate the Public Interest Report later this month (February 27).
Whilst the intention had been to present this information to councillors at the meeting, the scale and persistent nature of the misinformation in circulation has led the council to publish it earlier and set the record straight.
It has been made available on the council’s website.

A council spokesperson said: “For almost two years the Wales Audit Office gave the council every indication that it was quite satisfied that the authority was within its rights to indemnify a council officer to bring a counterclaim in response to being sued for libel and was fully aware of the legal advice that the council had received supporting it’s action. In fact, some six months after the indemnity was granted, the auditors – responding to questions raised by a local resident – repeatedly confirmed that they were satisfied that the council was acting within their powers.  We feel the only way to prove this is to publish the correspondence between ourselves and the auditors so that everyone can see for themselves what has taken place.

“We notified the Auditor of our intention to provide the indemnity before we proceeded and have kept them fully informed of legal advice that we received and all developments in the court case throughout the past two years. They have had every opportunity to tell us of any concerns before the action started and at every turn since, but failed to do so until 20 months after the action started and nine months after the court case had been settled.

“In correspondence with a member of the public in August 2012, the Auditor stated that the Wales Audit Office was content that the council had the necessary legal powers to issue the indemnity. We would ask the Auditor to reflect that their failure to suggest at any time that we did not have the legal powers and this explicit statement that we DID have those powers could not have been taken as anything other than confirmation that the Wales Audit Office was quite happy with the actions that the council was taking.

“The auditor seems completely unwilling to accept that their inaction and, in fact, positive confirmation of the council’s actions for most of the period in question, has contributed to the unfortunate ‘stand-off’ of differing legal interpretations that we now find ourselves in, as they appear to have changed their minds.

“We are also asking for the Auditor to retract his statement that the council did not seek fresh legal advice at the time of granting the indemnity. This is not true. The Auditor knows that we did seek such advice and that part of it is referenced within the officer report presented to members and quoted within the Auditor’s own Public Interest Report.

“We have published on the council website several pieces of legal advice, two of which are from separate QCs, which indicate that in their view, the council has acted lawfully. We remain confident in the advice we have received and we do not believe that the auditor should present his opinion as if it was the only opinion that mattered.”