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3 mayors and a property tax

Ghost Buster

I just learned yesterday that Longford has three mayors. A town mayor, a county mayor and then Granard which lets face it is a one street village has its own mayor. These three offices come complete with 'offices', secretaries, perks, expenses etc etc etc.
Weight this up against these two points:
This very council wants 100 euro from us to fund local services which we have already paid for.
An essential service in the town is in dire straits due to cut backs in funding and the amount it would require to keep the business afloat is roughly equal to one councillors expenses for a year.
Why 3 mayors?
Can anybody name them?

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garfieldsghost

The simple answer is that there are three mayors because there are three separate local authorities: Longford County Council, Longford Urban District Council, and Granard Town Commissioners. Members of each council elect a Mayor to undertake civic duties on its behalf, as well as to preside over council meetings, so as long as each of the three local authorities exists, it's going to have its own mayor.

The Town Mayor is James Keogh and the County Mayor (last time I checked) is Frank Kilbride. Not sure who the Granard Mayor is.

For an added kicker, James Keogh moved to the UK a while ago, but still holds his post!

Ghost Buster

garfieldsghost wrote: »

The simple answer is that there are three mayors because there are three separate local authorities: Longford County Council, Longford Urban District Council, and Granard Town Commissioners. Members of each council elect a Mayor to undertake civic duties on its behalf, as well as to preside over council meetings, so as long as each of the three local authorities exists, it's going to have its own mayor.

The Town Mayor is James Keogh and the County Mayor (last time I checked) is Frank Kilbride. Not sure who the Granard Mayor is.

For an added kicker, James Keogh moved to the UK a while ago, but still holds his post!

Sadly i must admit that i knew about Keogh and Kilbride and having heard both speak in public recently and been canvassed by both I fear the criteria for the position of mayor must be related to something other than vocabulary and ability to carry out 'civic duties' with any form of charisma or skill. I recently heard Mr Kilbride make three attempts at a sentence whilst reading a scripted speech (like a school boy reading an essay) and consistantly refer to a literary festival as a 'liturgy festival".This county is one of two to continuously refuse to publish its annual councillors expenses and then we have utter jokes of public reps costing the county money whilst business go to the wall for lack of funding. (Yup. Im in that sort of a mood today!):mad:

scudster

I have to agree that 1 mayor is more than enough for a county of this size. Also alot of the councillors aren't woth a damn either. I know one personally and he is a very large waste of space.

On an unrelated point, ye two posters shouldn't be agreeing with each other at all, just look at your usernames!

Ghost Buster

And our town mayor spoke at a tourism meeting recently. In his opening speech he mutter a little to the effect of ' I suppose we have some nice villages...um..Ardagh and ummm fishing i suppose'. The tourism advisors who followed him enthused about our huge potential with our water ways/ canal system and how it could be linked up with the abundance of Coillte hiking tracks in the country etc etc. The mayor simply offered....Ardagh.
These twits cost us money and are incapable of speaking in public.

ballsymchugh

ye should treat yourselves to a council meeting sometime soon lads. only then will you realise the ineptitude of the lot. the sooner the dept of environment scraps these town councils and amalgamates them into regional ones the better.
i don't mind the civil service aspect to it, it's good to have people who know how things go sorting that stuff out, but they can do it just fine without the councillors making representations for their next door neighbours.

funny when you think that mullingar doesn't have a town council....

Ghost Buster

ballsymchugh wrote: »

ye should treat yourselves to a council meeting sometime soon lads. only then will you realise the ineptitude of the lot. the sooner the dept of environment scraps these town councils and amalgamates them into regional ones the better.
i don't mind the civil service aspect to it, it's good to have people who know how things go sorting that stuff out, but they can do it just fine without the councillors making representations for their next door neighbours.

funny when you think that mullingar doesn't have a town council....

Oh but i have. Twice. One was hilarious in its Ballymgashery and the other was cancelled due to the death of a councillors sisters cousins uncle twice removed. All the councillors knew the meeting would be adjourned but they still turned up, got their attendance fee, travel expenses, had a minutes silence and went home.
And then i read in the paper that they cannot afford a few thousand to fund Backstage Theatre. One councillors expenses would make the differance there.

JimmyR

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Oh but i have. Twice. One was hilarious in its Ballymgashery and the other was cancelled due to the death of a councillors sisters cousins uncle twice removed. All the councillors knew the meeting would be adjourned but they still turned up, got their attendance fee, travel expenses, had a minutes silence and went home.
And then i read in the paper that they cannot afford a few thousand to fund Backstage Theatre. One councillors expenses would make the differance there.

Whats the story with Backstage funding?

Ghost Buster

JimmyR wrote: »

Whats the story with Backstage funding?

I forget the exact figures quoted in the papers but its down a further 20,000 ish again this year and in a very bad position. 20,00 is roughly the average expenses claimed by a county councillor. It was actually a former mayors phone expenses for a year around 2009. Longford co co wont and dont publish their expenses any longer. All other co co's do.
Jaysas Longford has little or nothing to show for itself in relation to other counties. The thriving theatre really sets it apart.

JimmyR

Ghost Buster wrote: »

I forget the exact figures quoted in the papers but its down a further 20,000 ish again this year and in a very bad position. 20,00 is roughly the average expenses claimed by a county councillor. It was actually a former mayors phone expenses for a year around 2009. Longford co co wont and dont publish their expenses any longer. All other co co's do.
Jaysas Longford has little or nothing to show for itself in relation to other counties. The thriving theatre really sets it apart.

Agree totally its one of the few things stick out as something to do in county that isn't sport or pub.

unfortunately cutting the amount of mayors down will not result in the money going to support worthy causes in the county. Having said that I don't feel that there is a need for three mayors but if there was just one maybe they worth serve some proper function. To be honest I expect the town and county councils to be amalgamated in the not too distant future. It'll be part of an overhaul of all councils which will see the councils reduced and an eventual reduction in admin staff.

On a side note related to the Backstage, the town really needs something to bring it to life. Something similar to the Festival that took place years ago, anything that will bring business into the town and brings a bit of life to a town that it dying on its feet.

Knight who says Meh

My County has a single town/ county mayor so no huge waste there in the style of Longford. However the incumbent mayor is always inevitably the shadiest of shadiest wheeler dealers in the council chamber. The current one has two ghost estates to his name, has a pub which serves after hours every night but the gardai turn a blind eye. He has been in court a few time for breeches of fire regulations. The other similarity with Longford is that he is utterly incapable of making a speech. I have actually laughed out loud twice at civic functions!
These twats get local authority money for this and we have to stump up 100 euro!!!!! RIGHT!

IPR_Iain

Longford county needs one good mayor - To lead the county, no town council, no regional mayors , just one. There is only 40k people FFS

There are a lot of problems in Longford and we need someone to lead from the front and address the issues.

garfieldsghost

IPR_Iain wrote: »

Longford county needs one good mayor - To lead the county, no town council, no regional mayors , just one. There is only 40k people FFS

There are a lot of problems in Longford and we need someone to lead from the front and address the issues.

Agree with you (and others) that only one council and mayor is needed for the county. However, I don't see that happening until the entire county/town council system is abolished and replaced by 'regional councils' (similar to what they have in France, etc.). Ideally this would also be established in conjunction with the introduction of a smaller Dáil, with the regional council being given total responsibility for all local issues, thus removing the 'parish pump' element from national politics. The stumbling block, however, is that the esteemed individuals who currently sit on our local authorities would probably make up the bulk of such a new system...

le la rat

Agree with the above an awful waste of money. Why do we need so many councilor's?

UrbanMonkey

I absoloutely HATE the local authorities in Longford! They are a complete waste of money, as they are so inefficient.
I actually don't know where to start! I'm so angry that we are just letting them live it up, burning their money, while the rest of us suffer (financially).
There should be just one council: Longford County Council. Longford Town council is a joke as Longford isn't a big enough town to need it's own council. But then ofcourse, there is GRANARD TOWN COUNCIL :eek: which is just utter madness! The whole lot of them are away with the fairies!

There was an article in the Irish examiner in May of 2011 where it was showing the expenses of all of the local authorities in the country, and Longford County Council, along with Cork County Council, refused to send in theirs. Here's the article:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/kfojojgbkfgb/rss2/

They later said that they didn't send in their expenses information because they weren't notified about it (unlikely).

I live in town, and the other day, one of those Longford Town Council street sweeping trucks was crawling past my house (at about 5mph) and, along with the driver of the truck, there was a passenger (council worker) who was just literally staring out the window. What in God's name is the point of him being there? What is wrong with the Council that they can't be even mildly efficient? It's actually just sickening! I'd die a happy man, if I got every one of those ***** fired!

Something has to be done about them! Feel free to reply.

UrbanMonkey

ballsymchugh wrote: »

ye should treat yourselves to a council meeting sometime soon lads. only then will you realise the ineptitude of the lot. the sooner the dept of environment scraps these town councils and amalgamates them into regional ones the better.
i don't mind the civil service aspect to it, it's good to have people who know how things go sorting that stuff out, but they can do it just fine without the councillors making representations for their next door neighbours.

funny when you think that mullingar doesn't have a town council....

I will definitely go to the next meeting. :cool:

Ghost Buster

UrbanMonkey wrote: »

I will definitely go to the next meeting. :cool:

Chances are it will be adjourned as a mark of respect due to the mayor of ballymahon streets uncles brothers neighbours friends sister twice removed. So they will all get their travel expenses, attendance fee and head off home.

UrbanMonkey

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Chances are it will be adjourned as a mark of respect due to the mayor of ballymahon streets uncles brothers neighbours friends sister twice removed. So they will all get their travel expenses, attendance fee and head off home.

"Mayor of Ballymahon street" Haha brilliant!

somuj

Doea one have to book a place at a meeting or can you just turn up?

garfieldsghost

somuj wrote: »

Doea one have to book a place at a meeting or can you just turn up?

You're entitled to attend, but you may have to ask a councillor to get you a 'pass' to gain entry to the meeting. http://www.longfordcoco.ie/about_us.html

garfieldsghost

I double-checked and you don't need any kind of pass (although some other councils elsewhere do)... you can gain access at your leisure.

UrbanMonkey

Right boys, we all have to go to the next meeting!

_________________________
I added cool smileys to this message... if you don't see them go to: http://s.exps.me

baldbear

Granard mayor is now a Maguire lad. Another Granard councillor is ALSO a county councillor. Double fecking jobbing. They used to rotate junkets abroad so theyd all get the freebies. A relation of mine used to be a councillor in the 90's and got paid zero. It was actually for the good of the town and not something to grease their pockets.

garfieldsghost

baldbear wrote: »

Granard mayor is now a Maguire lad. Another Granard councillor is ALSO a county councillor. Double fecking jobbing. They used to rotate junkets abroad so theyd all get the freebies. A relation of mine used to be a councillor in the 90's and got paid zero. It was actually for the good of the town and not something to grease their pockets.

In fairness, if a councillor is a member of two or more local authorities, they only get paid for one of the positions.

baldbear

I was wondering how do you find who gave planning permission for Gleann Riada to be built? Was it councillors?Or how did it ever get built seeing as its on a flood plain.

UrbanMonkey

baldbear wrote: »

I was wondering how do you find who gave planning permission for Gleann Riada to be built? Was it councillors?Or how did it ever get built seeing as its on a flood plain.

LONG STORY SHORT
Years ago, a man bought the Glenn Riada site for basically nothing, as it's agriculturally zoned land on a floodplain. Let's call this man Bob.
Bob then paid the person/people in charge of zoning land, to rezone the Glenn Riada site from 'agricultural' to 'housing/domestic'.
Therefore Bob was then able to go and build houses on the this land, making an absolute fortune.
The end.

mari2222

EXPENDITURE
Local Government Act 2001 – Section 142 Expenditure €

Mayor and Other Allowances 69,000
Entertainment and Associated Expenses 6,431
Representational Payments, Expenses of Members and
Representation at Conferences 549,835

Total 625,266

Ghost Buster

mari2222 wrote: »

EXPENDITURE
Local Government Act 2001 – Section 142 Expenditure €

Mayor and Other Allowances 69,000
Entertainment and Associated Expenses 6,431
Representational Payments, Expenses of Members and
Representation at Conferences 549,835

Total 625,266

Wow. My wife and I's combined wages dont come next to near that by tens of thousands. Is that just for one of our 3 mayors?

mari2222

That would cover the elected people to Longford Co Council. I dont know how many..
Got it:
"Longford County is currently divided into 4 Electoral Areas i.e. Ballymahon (6 Members); Drumlish (3 Members); Granard (5 Members) and Longford (7 Members), thus, a total of 21 members is elected to Longford County Council. The Mayor is elected from this representation."

So that is 21 people; of course most of these have fulltime jobs outside the council - the payments are for attending meetings and representing the people who elected them.