Councillors, like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion

CAESAR'S wife was given the benefit of a small walk-on part at the first meeting of the newly-elected Slane Electoral Area committee of Meath County Council last Wednesday when there was a call for greater transparency in the way the committee conducts its meetings. Caesar was elected to the position of Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the Roman state religion in 63BC. The job came with an official residence, Via Sacra. In 62BC his wife Pompeia hosted the festival of the Bona Dea or good goddess which no man was allowed to attend in this house. A young patrician named Publius Clodius Pulcher gained access disguised as a woman. He was caught and prosecuted for sacrilege. Caesar gave no evidence at the trial and Publius was acquitted. However, Caesar divorced Pompeia, saying that "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion." Independent Cllr Jimmy Cudden, who had just been elected chairperson of the committee for the coming year, had proposed a new method of running the meetings which would see public business being conducted between 10am and 12 noon. At noon, he said, if councillors wished to discuss planning matters, they could then go into committee to discuss particular items, or to receive presentations from council officials. Labour Cllr Eoin Holmes said that he agreed with Cllr Cudden's suggestions for running the meetings more efficiently but suggested an amendment to them. He said that the members had "got into the habit" of going into committee all the time. He believed that there was a lot of items which should be discussed in open forum. "Do we have to have a committee meeting every month?" he asked. Cllr Cudden said that it was his belief that they could not discuss a particular planning file in public. Cllr Holmes said that he was not speaking about individuals' planning applications but broader planning matters like local area plans. "Discreet planning matters could be held in committee where appropriate." He added: "Not that there is anything untoward happening but we could be more transparent." In reply to a question from Cllr Sirena Campbell, Area Manager Tadhg McDonnell said that there was no question of breaching the Data Protection Act by discussing planning in public. He added that there was nothing in the legislation to say that meetings should be held in committee. This was a matter for the members themselves to decide. There were advantages and disadvantages in discussing certain items in committee. He quipped that it seemed to him that meetings were conducted in a more expeditious when the press were not present. He said there might be occasions when officials needed to brief councillors about planning matters before they went into the public domain. But the decision to discuss matters in public or private was solely a matter for the members. He said that while members could make representations on planning matters at the local committee level, the decisions were actually made at council level in Navan. Mr McDonnell said that decisions made by the members must be in the general public interest. Their job was to represent all of the people of East Meath, not a particular niche or interest. Cllr Holmes said that he would like to see as much of the committee business as possible discussed in public. It wasn't that anything untoward had happened in the past but he was thinking of Caesar's wife, that they must be seen to be above suspicion. Cllr Cudden said that if any member had a particular interest in a constituent's file, they could bring it to the attention of the meeting administrator a couple of days before the public meeting. That particular item could then be discussed in committee, with the agreement of the members. In general, he said, they held their debates in public. A six-month trial of the new system of dealing with the agenda was agreed.