Re-setting the standard

Rockin’ Rene Kinzett’s cat could be forgiven for sporting a smug look today given that his owner has been cleared of misconduct by his peers.

A couple of cabinet non-achievers on Swansea Council objected a while back when he described the majority of councillors serving in Calamity Hall as “past it”. They were even less impressed to hear him say that his cat Derek probably knew as much about running the council as some members of the ruling administration.

Wendy Fitzgerald & Mary Jones reported Kinzett, who heads up the tory group, to the Ombudsman for his comments. Bizarrely, the local government watchdog concluded that the Mayals councillor had breached the code of conduct. He told Swansea’s Standards Committee to deal with it. They did; and more or less told the Ombudsman to get a life.

Regular readers of this blog will remember that Fitzgerald is the hapless loser who saw social services slide from beacon to basket case under her watch. Jones on the other hand was responsible for what is recognised as one of the most expensive e-government screw-ups on record. Both of them can now add “expensive time-wasting” to their local government CVs.

Congratulations to the Standards Committee for a commonsense approach otherwise lacking in local authority dealings at Swansea.