Perry implements a screening process to avoid the tough questions – Inside Croydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Halfway through his term, the executive mayor has broken cross-party deals to avoid scrutiny – appointing a climate crisis skeptic to chair the council’s environmental scrutiny committee. WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, reporting

Marking your own theme: Mayor Jason Perry has been compared to a dictator

Jason Perry, the part-time mayor of Croydon, took less than half his term in office to break one of the most important commitments he made on the future governance of the council by installing colleagues conservatives as chairmen of City Hall control committees to avoid accountability. according to the opposition councilors.

Perry was accused of “marking his homework” and being likened to a dictator.

“There was a cross-party agreement following the council’s financial collapse in 2020 that scrutiny committees should in future be chaired by someone who is not in the same party as the council administration,” a Katharine Street source said today .

“So what did Perry do? He broke a cross-party agreement and installed a Tory climate change skeptic as chairman of the environmental scrutiny committee and installed another Tory, someone who had been on the board for less than a month, as chairman. of the subcommittee on children and youth.”

The confusion in the corridors of City Hall was caused not only by Perry’s attempt to cling to more power for himself, but also by the failure of council staff and lawyers to finalize a new constitution that reflected the changed model of management of the council, for almost three years. since it was decided to switch to an elected, executive mayor.

The reshuffle of control roles for 2024-25 was decided by Perry and his close advisers ahead of the board’s annual meeting last week.

The bad times: having an autocrat like Tony Newman in charge of the council bankrupted the borough

Behind-the-scenes horse-trading took place right up to the last minute, with finalized paperwork, including details of all the jobs – and the juicy allowances that go with them – not released until less than two hours before the meeting.

It was a throwback to the bad old days when “powerful leaders” like Labour’s Tony Newman and Tory Mike Fisher before him shared council jobs in return for absolute and unquestioning loyalty from councillors.

For this new civic year, there have been no changes to the roles of Mayor Perry’s cabinet – a collection of eight councilors who are paid close to £40,000 for not doing much…

But the “enthronement” of Richard Chatterjee (Who him? Ed) as ceremonial deputy mayor (20 grand a year for wearing costumes and cutting the occasional village fete ribbon) left a vacancy for the controlling vice president.

Two years into his four-year term, and with Labor councilor Rowenna Davis generally impressing as an independent, questioning-everything chair, Perry and his little brain trust clearly believed the Tories needed to strengthen positioning on control to avoid getting caught too often.

Thus, Alasdair Stewart was moved laterally, from a cabinet deputy role (ie no role in reality) to vice president of control.

New move: Alasdair Stewart

Being vice chair probably won’t see Stewart overseeing any of the review and overview committee meetings. Last week’s council proceedings explain the same: “In the absence of the chairperson, the deputy chairperson will be designated to chair the meeting,” meaning that in Davis’ absence, another Labor councilor, Leila Ben-Hassel, will chair the meetings.

But Stewart, first elected to the council in 2022, is generally recognized by Katharine Street insiders as a tougher prospect than his predecessor Chatterjee.

When it came to the various scrutiny subcommittees, Perry and the Tories decided to break the short-lived agreement that opposition councilors should chair meetings and instead put “anti-woke” right-wing figure Stewart to the leadership of the streets. and environmental watchdog and barrister Andrew Price, winner of the Park Hill and Whitgift by-election earlier this month, who oversees the children’s sub-committee.

Twelve months ago, in an unusually progressive move by Croydon Council’s standards, the make-up of the environmental review sub-committee was expanded from six to seven, retaining three Tory and three Labor members but accommodating Greens councilor Ria Patel, who entered as president. .

With Perry increasingly under increasing pressure for his pro-car policies and caught up in a series of pork pies when he was negotiating with a private golf club over a possible disposal of Green Belt courses held by the council, the mayor moved to dismiss Patel with little debate or discussion.

Edged: Croydon’s three minority party councilors are kept out of any of the big committees, such as planning, appointments or general purposes.

Croydon’s two Green and LibDem councilors have repeatedly complained about how they have been marginalized and silenced over the past two years, mostly by the autocratic executive mayor, but also sometimes with the complicity of Labor who, with 34 of advisers, are the biggest. only one group on the board and clearly they want to keep it that way.

With this year’s environmental scrutiny sub-committee, one of the backroom deals suggested was for Labor to give up one of the three meeting seats to make way for a Green councillor. They refused.

Mayor Perry used his position to prevent the Greens and LibDems from being able to speak or ask questions at other Town Hall meetings.

A week earlier, Patel was denied any opportunity to ask Mayor Perry questions at the latest cabinet meeting, which the councilor said was “deliberate silence and an example of bad leadership.”

Patel says he was denied the opportunity to ask just two questions, despite emailing him days in advance. She was only told of her exclusion less than three hours before the meeting.

The reason given for Perry not having to face Patel’s questions? “The Interests of Efficient and Effective Management of Cabinet Affairs.” The meeting chaired by part-time Perry — which could typically last three hours — was done and dusted within an hour and 10 minutes.

“Mayor Perry is trying to avoid scrutiny and responsibility”

Patel tweeted that he wished “Croydon had a committee system rather than a dictator…sorry, I mean mayor”.

She added: “Mayor Perry says he wants to collaborate and work across parties. After two years of constant blocking, this is even more obviously a hoax.

“Working collaboratively, can you imagine that?

Blocked questions: Green Party Councilor Ria Patel

“Effective practice business involves proper inquiry and control. A good leader, of any political group, should recognize this.”

Patel says she realizes her Labor colleagues are seriously compromised by the failures of the 2014-2022 administration. “Most of the questions being asked by Labour’s shadow cabinet members are being met in a way that the ‘previous administration’ screwed up.”

Then came last week’s annual meeting. “The Mayor of Croydon is trying to cover up his failure to deliver on climate action by removing me as chair of the streets and environment watchdog and appointing someone from his own party,” said Patel, clearly angry at the move to power.

“It is precisely this fear of effective challenge from opposition parties that has caused so many problems for Croydon in recent years.

“Opposition parties are best placed to drive scrutiny and that is when the best value is achieved. Having someone from the mayor’s own party is like marking homework.

“This move is intended to allow the mayor to avoid responsibility and avoid scrutiny.”

Today, Patel, speaking exclusively to Inside Croydon, said: “Two years since the Greens and a Lib Dem were elected to Croydon Council, many outdated parts of Croydon’s constitution remain.

“The Tories will tell you the constitution has been updated to fit the mayoral model. But it kept much of the old council’s system, ignoring changes to Croydon’s political structure in 2022. Both the Tories and Labor have delayed talks, which would make the constitution more reflective of the current council structure. A lot of change is needed – and that’s not helped by the last-minute cancellation of constitutional task force meetings.

“There is no appetite or urgency to change the constitution: they want the Greens to be silenced because we are effective and listen to residents. Included in this silence is not allowing us to move motions to the full council, and Mayor Perry consistently refuses to allow me to ask cabinet questions – with a different excuse each time.

“I think control should be run by the opposition parties and replacing me with a Conservative is marking your homework.

“Perry is halfway through his term and it’s clear that conservatives feel threatened. Mayor Perry is trying to avoid scrutiny and responsibility – a big reason why Croydon got into such a massive mess in the first place.”

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