Fire a warning shot - vote NO for the single candidate for national president

The ASCC Executive Council/Board has now issued a statement backing up its decision to nominate one candidate alone for the post of national president – in addition to the candidate’s statement issued with the annual ballot pack.

 In evaluating whether to vote for or against this candidate member community councils should bear in mind that the Executive Council/Board has not had the full complement of 16 members when authorising these actions and statements.

The vacancy on the Executive Council/Board for Edinburgh and the Lothians is evident on the ASCC website (22 October 2010 at 9.24 am).  This vacancy, and the replacement or re-election of CCllr Sam Campbell of Midlothian who has now been in post for 7 months longer than the intended two year tenure, could have been filled under the constitution by the Executive Council/Board calling a special meeting of the three in post local authority area representatives (who were elected in April 2010) from 15 August 2010 onwards. It has not done so.

In addition two other of the members of the Board of Directors listed on the ASCC website on 22 October 2010 at 9.24am  (and this is still the case on 31 October at 4.34pm) actually demitted office several weeks previously.

If these latter two vacancies have been filled and are not notified on the website then it demonstrates that the Executive Council/Board can act to implement the required procedures to fill vacancies when it wishes and has been failing in its responsibility to secure full representation on the Executive Council/Board with respect to Edinburgh and the Lothians.

If these other vacancies have not been filled then there is considerably more under-representation on the Executive Council/Board than might be apparent from examining the website listing.

These arguments add to the case for voting NO for the single candidate for national president in the ASCC annual postal ballot. Such action is a warning shot across the bows - it will not disable the organisation but it will express the serious concerns of member community councils about the way that ASCC operates - a concern that was expressed to me when I was elected as Edinburgh area representative of ASCC by the city's community councils in April this year. And these concerns have not been allayed in the several months since.