Carmarthenshire County Council has suffered many problems similar to those in East Devon: lack of transparency, a perception that is is officer-led and unaccountable. Its Chief Executive was awarded a dubious pension deal at a meeting at which he was present and he is currently attempting to negotiate a severance deal (designed by him and other officers) of £250,000 plus.
Unlike here, a combination of opposition councillors, local bloggers and the press forced a review of the situation and a hard-hitting report was commissioned and is now published. It makes fascinating yet anxiety-provoking reading – particularly on the issue of public speaking and overview and scrutiny.
The executive summary states:
· Despite pride in the Council’s services and high regard for the workforce, there were widespread concerns about the way the Council conducted business from many internal and external stakeholders;
· Internal systems of governance and constitutional processes were either not consistently followed or were perceived to be designed to constrain democratic debate and public engagement;
· Internal tensions affected the way that the Council worked and was viewed externally;
· There was generally an inconsistency in the understanding of the respective of roles of elected members and officers, and the perception has been that the Chief Executive and senior officers have dominated some of the decisions of the Executive Board to the extent that the balance of governance has become disjointed and the Council is widely perceived to be officer-led;
· the Council’s member and officer leadership was viewed by some as defensive and did not encourage or respond constructively to challenge, but there was a clear consensus, particularly from members, that there was a need and a willingness to strengthen internal and external accountability arrangements;
· There was a consensus, particularly from members, about the need to redefine and strengthen the member role and provide leadership of the openness and transparency agenda
You can read it here:
East Devon Watch 
There is one MAJOR difference between Carmarthenshire County Council and East Devon District Council – Carmarthenshire County Council were willing to concede that there was a problem, and were willing to get an independent review.
By contrast, EDDC leadership appear pretty unwilling to concede that they are anything other than perfect even when it is obvious to anyone but themselves.
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