‘Rees supports transparency – but only when it suits him’

It’s great to see Marvin Rees finally respond in full to the claims that a “secret” deal was done to pay-off his chief exec to the tune of £200,000 (at a time the council is looking to cut 1,000 jobs).

But behind his seemingly robust denial, the mayor, who, it’s fair to say, has enjoyed a bit of a honeymoon since being elected, seems to be contradicting his very election pledges on transparency.

The truth finally came out about the pay-off this week through Bristol’s chief agent provocateur and top Tory Richard Eddy, who also happened to “reveal” to the Bristol Post that the whole reason Nicola Yates left was a disagreement about the European Green Capital accounts.

“The Post is either speculating or reporting speculation about the reasons for her leaving and is passing editorial judgement based partly on this,” Marvin blustered in a comprehensive response which seems, unusually, to have been printed in isolation and in full on the Post’s website/pop-up ad emporium.

“I hope that most people would understand that my not discussing it further is not a matter of ‘secrets’, but a proper professional respect for the law and for our staff’s private employment matters, regardless of who they are or what role they hold.”

Hold on a second. Is this the same man who campaigned for more transparency over Green Capital (of which Yates was CEO) and published 600 invoices when he came to power?

The man whose very election manifesto included the line: “Ensure the Council House is open and accessible to the public to sustain participation in decision making.”

Now, inside Rees’ latest defense, which came after a tragically bumbling bit of question-dodging the day before, comes the excuse that details of the payoff couldn’t be released because the information is “private, confidential and legally privileged”. He followed the correct processes, as he said.

“Errrm…” pic.twitter.com/GWeQ0knDSy

— BBC Radio Bristol (@bbcrb) September 2, 2016

This would chime with claims the BBC and Bristol24/7 were both denied (twice each) after requesting under the Freedom of Information Act for the council to release the full details of the payment.

That would leave him in the clear. Or it would do if Eddy hadn’t also revealed that the decision was taken before the Human Resources Committee met on August 4 – so that the relevant councillors were not able to scrutinise the action in public.

Now, at this point it’s worth remembering that when George Ferguson and Team Green Capital were defending the “missing millions” of public spending which were allegedly kept secret from the public some very similar language was used.

“We’ve followed the correct processes,” they wailed, claiming to be just as transparent as the rest and complaining of a politically-motivated attack as countless Freedom of Information requests were denied.

One of those on the attack was, of course, Marvin Rees. Standing on his election platform he called for an inquiry into the Green Capital accounts to make sure the financial benefits were felt by all.

“To do this we must be open about the way we make decisions, welcoming public scrutiny and being honest when things have not gone as well as we might have planned,” he piped.

So it’s transparency you stand for is it Marvin? But only when it suits you perhaps?

Dennis Wright is a columnist for Bristol24/7 who’s also written about Stokes Croft and transport.

Read more: Rees says ‘secret’ pay-off was transparent