Correspondence between LGA, all peers and City of York staff

Local Government Association did not have the information requested.

Dear Local Government Association,
Please provide all correspondence between yourselves ( and your peers) & city of York staff and Cllrs between March 1 and September 15th. Please ensure you provide all recorded information including all related to the LGA review on officer conduct at the Meeting of 22nd February. https://twitter.com/gswinburn/status/910...

Yours faithfully,

Gwen Swinburn

FOI, Local Government Association

Dear Gwen Swinburn,

Thank you for your request for information below. Please note that the
Local Government Association is not subject to the requirement of the
FOIA. We do, however, endeavour to act in the spirit of the legislation
and to provide information when requested and where we are able to do so.
We will respond to your request as quickly as possible and certainly by
18^th November 2017.

Kind regards,

Maisie Lynch

 

 

From: Gwen Swinburn [mailto:[FOI #433060 email]]
Sent: 20 September 2017 08:16
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence between LGA, all
peers and City of York staff

 

Dear Local Government Association,
Please provide all correspondence between yourselves ( and your peers) &
city of York staff and Cllrs between March 1 and September 15th. Please
ensure you provide all recorded information including all related to the
LGA review on officer conduct at the Meeting of 22nd February.
[1]https://twitter.com/gswinburn/status/910...

Yours faithfully,

Gwen Swinburn

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[2][FOI #433060 email]

Is [3][LGA request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Local Government Association? If so, please contact us using
this form:
[4]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[5]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

Maisie Lynch, Local Government Association

Apologies we will respond by 18^th October 2017.

Kind regards,

Maisie

 

From: FOI
Sent: 20 September 2017 15:28
To: 'Gwen Swinburn' <[FOI #433060 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence between LGA,
all peers and City of York staff

 

Dear Gwen Swinburn,

Thank you for your request for information below. Please note that the
Local Government Association is not subject to the requirement of the
FOIA. We do, however, endeavour to act in the spirit of the legislation
and to provide information when requested and where we are able to do so.
We will respond to your request as quickly as possible and certainly by
18^th November 2017.

Kind regards,

Maisie Lynch

 

 

From: Gwen Swinburn [[1]mailto:[FOI #433060 email]]
Sent: 20 September 2017 08:16
To: FOI <[2][email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence between LGA, all
peers and City of York staff

 

Dear Local Government Association,
Please provide all correspondence between yourselves ( and your peers) &
city of York staff and Cllrs between March 1 and September 15th. Please
ensure you provide all recorded information including all related to the
LGA review on officer conduct at the Meeting of 22nd February.
[3]https://twitter.com/gswinburn/status/910...

Yours faithfully,

Gwen Swinburn

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[4][FOI #433060 email]

Is [5][LGA request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Local Government Association? If so, please contact us using
this form:
[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[8]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

FOI, Local Government Association

Dear Gwen Swinburn,

Further to your email below may I request that you narrow the scope of
what information you are looking for (eg to a particular issue, named
officer, specific correspondence)? As we are a membership organisation we
are in frequent correspondence with our members across a number of teams
here at the LGA and so as your request currently stands there would be a
large amount of probably irrelevant correspondence captured.

Kind regards,

Maisie Lynch

 

 

From: FOI
Sent: 20 September 2017 15:28
To: 'Gwen Swinburn' <[FOI #433060 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence between LGA,
all peers and City of York staff

 

Dear Gwen Swinburn,

Thank you for your request for information below. Please note that the
Local Government Association is not subject to the requirement of the
FOIA. We do, however, endeavour to act in the spirit of the legislation
and to provide information when requested and where we are able to do so.
We will respond to your request as quickly as possible and certainly by
18^th November 2017.

Kind regards,

Maisie Lynch

 

 

From: Gwen Swinburn [[1]mailto:[FOI #433060 email]]
Sent: 20 September 2017 08:16
To: FOI <[2][email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence between LGA, all
peers and City of York staff

 

Dear Local Government Association,
Please provide all correspondence between yourselves ( and your peers) &
city of York staff and Cllrs between March 1 and September 15th. Please
ensure you provide all recorded information including all related to the
LGA review on officer conduct at the Meeting of 22nd February.
[3]https://twitter.com/gswinburn/status/910...

Yours faithfully,

Gwen Swinburn

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[4][FOI #433060 email]

Is [5][LGA request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Local Government Association? If so, please contact us using
this form:
[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[8]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

Dear FOI,

Dear Maisie,
Thank you for your response. I had not imagined there would have been so much correspondence in just six months. However in the interests of moving this along, I have narrowed my request to the provision of all emails and recorded information with the following addressees
Mary Weastell
Ian Floyd
Cllr David Carr -leader
Cllr Andrew Waller-Deputy Leader
Max Thomas
Mark Bennett
Andrew Docherty
And then all recorded information on the LGA review /Investigation into the conduct of the City of York Audit and Governance Committee 22nd February 2017 conducted by reviewer Linda Walker including the Terms Of Reference and final report.
Finally please provide all LGA invoices/ bills charged to city if york since April 6 2017 thank you
Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

FOI, Local Government Association

Dear Gwen,

Thank you for your response. We will respond to you as quickly as possible
and certainly within 20 working days.

Kind regards,

Maisie Lynch

 

From: Gwen Swinburn [mailto:[FOI #433060 email]]
Sent: 01 October 2017 17:21
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Re: FW: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence between
LGA, all peers and City of York staff

 

Dear FOI,

Dear Maisie,
Thank you for your response. I had not imagined there would have been so
much correspondence in just six months. However in the interests of moving
this along, I have narrowed my request to the provision of all emails and
recorded information with the following addressees
Mary Weastell
Ian Floyd
Cllr David Carr -leader
Cllr Andrew Waller-Deputy Leader
Max Thomas
Mark Bennett
Andrew Docherty
And then all recorded information on the LGA review /Investigation into
the conduct of the City of York Audit and Governance Committee 22nd
February 2017 conducted by reviewer Linda Walker including the Terms Of
Reference and final report.
Finally please provide all LGA invoices/ bills charged to city if york
since April 6 2017 thank you
Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

FOI, Local Government Association

2 Attachments

Dear Gwen,

Please find attached the Local Government Association’s response to your
request for information below.

Kind regards,

Maisie Lynch

 

From: Gwen Swinburn [mailto:[FOI #433060 email]]
Sent: 01 October 2017 17:21
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Re: FW: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence between
LGA, all peers and City of York staff

 

Dear FOI,

Dear Maisie,
Thank you for your response. I had not imagined there would have been so
much correspondence in just six months. However in the interests of moving
this along, I have narrowed my request to the provision of all emails and
recorded information with the following addressees
Mary Weastell
Ian Floyd
Cllr David Carr -leader
Cllr Andrew Waller-Deputy Leader
Max Thomas
Mark Bennett
Andrew Docherty
And then all recorded information on the LGA review /Investigation into
the conduct of the City of York Audit and Governance Committee 22nd
February 2017 conducted by reviewer Linda Walker including the Terms Of
Reference and final report.
Finally please provide all LGA invoices/ bills charged to city if york
since April 6 2017 thank you
Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

Dear Maisie Lynch,
Thank you for your reply.

1. May I clarify, as we who were interviewed had understood this was an LGA investigation. This response I now understand is the LGA pointed City of York to a named consultant person specifically with zero connection to the LGA with no other involvement/engagement/oversight with the LGA? I am intrigued as it is called an LGA investigation by management and councillors. Does this mean that the fees for this investigation fall upon CYC not the LGA?

2. My final query regarding monies sent to LGA -I don’t believe falls into the specific exemptions I think you are relying upon.

Accordingly for that issue alone could you undertake an internal review.

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

Gwen Swinburn left an annotation ()

You see what I don’t get is I thought we were getting the weight of the LGA behind this investigation. Now it seems CYC just given a name of a lawyer and that is the end of their involvement. Meanwhile the Terms of Reference are still being withheld from citizens and councillors . The Councillors are still calling thIs an LGA investigation and the statutory officers about whom it is about, talk freely about it in committees, on camera without any declaration of interest-they are still refusing it to Councillors. Only the Leader has it, despite it being a coalition.
This has become surreal.

Bob left an annotation ()

Linda Walker?

Not this one surely?

http://www.sloughtimes.com/ns/ns17/ns173...

Maisie Lynch, Local Government Association

1 Attachment

Dear Gwen,

 

The LGA will always support Councils to best effect. Sometimes we don’t
have the specific expertise required in house. In these cases we will
advise a Council of people we feel are appropriately experienced and
qualified for the task in hand. That is what happened in this case. Linda
Walker is not an employee of the LGA. However the LGA did work to ensure
the task was properly defined and that Linda was appropriately briefed.
The work itself, and the conclusions and recommendations however, were
Linda’s. The payment of fees for such pieces of work are considered on a
case by case basis. On this occasion the LGA paid for the investigation as
part of our support for Councils facing particular challenges.

 

Kind regards,

 

Maisie

 

From: Gwen Swinburn [mailto:[FOI #433060 email]]
Sent: 23 October 2017 19:00
To: Maisie Lynch <[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request -
Correspondence between LGA, all peers and City of York staff

 

Dear Maisie Lynch,
Thank you for your reply.

1. May I clarify, as we who were interviewed had understood this was an
LGA investigation. This response I now understand is the LGA pointed City
of York to a named consultant person specifically with zero connection to
the LGA with no other involvement/engagement/oversight with the LGA? I am
intrigued as it is called an LGA investigation by management and
councillors. Does this mean that the fees for this investigation fall upon
CYC not the LGA?

2. My final query regarding monies sent to LGA -I don’t believe falls into
the specific exemptions I think you are relying upon.

Accordingly for that issue alone could you undertake an internal review.

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

Dear Maisie,

Thank you for confirming the LGA is not associated with this assignment other than paying for it and ensuring the task was properly defined and Linda briefed.

The matter of the task being properly defined is problematic as neither Councillors nor citizens were allowed to see the terms of reference ( we were told at LGA’s insistence) . This was a surprise to Linda. Can you clarify that please?

Regarding Linda being properly briefed, I was interviewed by Linda alongside a Councillor regarding that A&G meeting. Linda told us she had not even received the many complaints from the public regarding the conduct of the statutory officers and chair in that meeting (including my own complaint).

Upon asking Linda about the reporting modalities for her work. She said she was preparing her first draft for a meeting with the Chief Executive. I made an obvious point that the complaint was about the Chief Executive herself and others so wasn’t that difficult? The teacher sets the homework ( in secret) and edits and marks it (in secret) then withholds it from both Councillors and Citizens ( including the deputy leader, Audit and governance and scrutiny councillors), all the while passing it off as an LGA investigation, with now, we discover, no LGA oversight. It is, in effect the views of one consultant, a very different message we had been receiving. Meanwhile we are told in open committee that none of the statutory officers had seen the report.

So this procurement and process is perplexing.

I wonder if you can clarify your schema for Councils facing ‘special challenges’ and how long York has been part of that programme?

Finally can you confirm if you are working with City of York on this assignment or others right now as part of this special programme or any other? If so what is it about? We have I think had an LGA intervention at least once every year of late, this year we have had this one and a procurement investigation, is there any more?

Thank you

Gwen

Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

Dear Maisie Lynch,

Can you please confirm what you are doing with this? The statutory officers in York are still characterising the consultant report as if it was an LGA report. Further they have repeatedly denied it to A& G members., who have now met -see webcast and they have instructed statutory officers to issue an unredacted copy in ‘private’ to A& G members for an emergency meeting on mon 30th April ( as of Thursday they still have been refused it).
See this webcast https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=yout...
And agenda http://democracy.york.gov.uk/mgCommittee...

It is all becoming rather a farce ( esp when you see the extent of the redactions, which speak to the secrecy culture among top staffers).

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

Maisie Lynch, Local Government Association

1 Attachment

Dear Gwen,

As previously advised this is not an LGA report, it was a report written
independently by Linda Walker. As you know we did procure Linda and did
pay for her work on this. 

The LGA is not involved with the functioning of the A&G Committee at CYC
and has no remit to be so.

Regards,

Maisie

 

From: Gwen Swinburn [mailto:[FOI #433060 email]]
Sent: 26 April 2018 12:00
To: Maisie Lynch <[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request -
Correspondence between LGA, all peers and City of York staff

 

Dear Maisie Lynch,

Can you please confirm what you are doing with this? The statutory
officers in York are still characterising the consultant report as if it
was an LGA report. Further they have repeatedly denied it to A& G
members., who have now met -see webcast and they have instructed statutory
officers to issue an unredacted copy in ‘private’ to A& G members for an
emergency meeting on mon 30th April ( as of Thursday they still have been
refused it).
See this webcast
[1]https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=yout...
And agenda [2]http://democracy.york.gov.uk/mgCommittee...

It is all becoming rather a farce ( esp when you see the extent of the
redactions, which speak to the secrecy culture among top staffers).

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

show quoted sections

Dear Maisie Lynch,

Thank you

You might be concerned to know what despite multiple requests to top management by members and citizens ( the latest in this webcast) the CX and S151 are still insisting on deliberately mischaracterising the report not only as an LGA report but an LGA peer report. The latest webcast shows the lengths to which citizens and a seriously annoyed deputy chair are having to go to stop this myth.

The way the top staff are deliberately withholding the report from members is by association bringing damage to the LGA.

May I ask that you do two things write to the CX telling her where to get off and secondly have a serious review of how you engage with Councils and specifically York in future to make sure they do not bury reports that you fund and we pay for through subscriptions .

As of this date despite the consultant having said she assumed the report would be public, and despite the then leader saying the same- it remains buried.

See webcast here https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=yout...

See officer report here http://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s...

See redacted consultant’s report, all that the statutory officers have allowed them to see here http://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s...

Yours sincerely,

Gwen Swinburn

Maisie Lynch, Local Government Association

1 Attachment

I am out of hte office until 9th May 2017 and will not have access to my
emails. I will, however, reply to you as soon as possible when I return.
If your matter is urgent please send it to [email address]
who may be able to assist.
Kind regards,
Maisie Lynch

 

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