THE first signs of teething problems between councillors and directly-elected Mayor John Moran became evident this week during the nomination of four local representatives to the board of Innovate Limerick.
With calls for Monday’s full meeting of Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) to be abandoned at one point, it was a rocky first assembly of the 41 elected representatives.
Fine Gael councillor John Sheahan nominated councillors Olivia O’Sullivan, Joe Leddin, and Fergus Kilcoyne to the board of Innovate Limerick when the item came up on the agenda. Independent councillor Brigid Teefy proposed Cllr Maria Donoghue to the same committee.
However, Mayor Moran told council members that he felt the way board members are appointed is not necessarily consistent with governance code for state agencies. He explained that he was trying to find a middle ground to that as the shareholder of LCCC.
“It is the prerogative of the shareholder to choose directors that can best serve that company. In order to do that, I think it is appropriate that we actually take into account the skills of the various people. They should only serve on those boards if they can bring specific knowledge,” he told council members
Mayor Moran accepted that councillors being on such boards does have a benefit, lending a community impact and increased knowledge base. However he asked that any council member who would like to serve on a board “send expressions of interest to me outlining what skills they have that they believe they bring to the table”.
He told councillors that he would “take into account any recommendations that parties want in terms of nominations, but I will reserve the right to actually ask for the skills of those directors to know if they’re suitable”.
Cllr Sheahan said that the Mayor’s declaration posed a “conundrum” as the 40 elected councillors have a mandate to sit on the council’s boards as directors.
“We have a slight impasse,” he told the Mayor.
“I don’t want to be flippant, but what we have been asked to do is to put ourselves forward and we may be considered. I think the public considered us on the 7th of June. They gave each and everyone here an equal mandate.”
Cllr Sheehan said he was “not happy with a ‘please sir, can I be on the board’ approach”.
“We are the people that the people chose, like us or lump us.”
Cllr Sarah Kiely supported her Fine Gael colleague’s comments and hit out that an expression of interest based on their skillset was totally wrong. She called for council members to be taken seriously.
“I think it is a box-ticking exercise, our skillsets are unique. I don’t think they can be pigeonholed. We have the transparency and the oversight to represent the people of Limerick and we need to represent their interests on these boards,” Cllr Kiely insisted.
Cllr Stephen Keary (FG) raised concerns that this new move would see a return to the “old pals act”. He feared that individuals could be selected for boards by the Mayor who were “colleagues or mates”.
Fianna Fáil man Kieran O’Hanlon was not impressed either, fuming that he had “absolutely no intention of writing in and asking ‘please, can I go on that board?’”
