IT is a story that even Franz Kafka could not have made up, yet the tale of the disputatious council, the identical twin brothers, and who exactly did call fellow councillors ‘the Stasi’ is completely factual.
Falkirk Council has been beset in recent years with catcalls and insults among members leading to complaints to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life.
He has had to deal with complaints usually made by councillors against each other of insults ranging from one councillor calling the council administration “f****** a********” to another making Sieg Heil Nazi salutes.
The latest allegation was that Falkirk South Labour Councillor Dennis Goldie called Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn and some SNP colleagues “the Stasi”.
Meiklejohn claimed that during a heated Executive Committee meeting to discuss Falkirk Council’s budget, Dennis Goldie responded to another councillor’s request for a recess by stating that he was “not prepared to sit around all day and wait on yous (sic)”, as recorded in the Commissioner’s judgement.
The bit that really annoyed Councillor Meiklejohn was that Goldie then said “they are just like the Stasi”, which comment “she considered to have been directed at her and two other SNP councillors who were in the room,” as the Commissioner noted.
The Local Government Code of Conduct says that councillors should treat each other with respect, something which Falkirk Council members may wish to consider.
There have been more complaints about Falkirk members by other Falkirk councillors to the Commissioner than with any other council in Scotland.
Calling them the Stasi – East Germany’s feared tyrannical secret police during the Cold War – was just too much for the SNP councillors, who had only been seeking an adjournment of the meeting, a practice which has often caused council meetings to be “fractious” as the Commissioner put it, with one councillor alleging that meetings had lasted up to 12 hours because of “tactical” adjournments.
Where the current story enters into the realm of the bizarre if not the surreal is what happened during the Commissioner’s investigation.
Four councillors said they heard Goldie make the ‘Stasi’ remark: “All four councillors were clear that it was the respondent [Dennis Goldie] who had made the comment, either on the basis they had been looking at him when he made it, or that they recognised his voice.”
It turns out, however, that Dennis Goldie’s identical twin brother Gerry Goldie is also a Labour councillor and was also at the meeting.
According to the Commissioner, Dennis Goldie maintained “that the comment could, potentially, have been made by either Councillor Gerry Goldie or Councillor [Linda] Gow in the context of a conversation they were having at the time of the request for the adjournment. However, whilst Councillor Gerry Goldie and Councillor Gow both conceded that it was possible that such a comment could have been made during that conversation, neither had any recollection of saying it, or of hearing it being said.”
A council official was present, taking notes, and he had written down that “like the Stasi” had been said. However, he attributed to phrase not to Dennis but to Gerry Goldie.
According to the Commissioner, the official “had been concentrating on writing notes, and looking at his notepad rather than at the members of the committee. He stated that the respondent and Councillor Gerry Goldie, as identical twins, sounded very alike.”
The Commissioner concluded: “Having regard to all of the evidence, and on the balance of probabilities, I concluded that the respondent [Dennis Goldie] did make a comment that ‘they are just like the Stasi’ or said words to that effect.”
Nevertheless, and to the amazement of some at Falkirk Council, Dennis Goldie was cleared of breaking the code of conduct.
The Commissioner wrote that Goldie’s comments “were made in response to a request for an adjournment during debate in respect of a topic which was the subject of some political controversy.
“In addition, it appeared from the evidence that there was a culture of using adjournment during council meetings for tactical purposes. Having considered all of the circumstances, I judged the respondent’s comments to be an example of the brusque or emotive language which may occur within a political environment.
“I was not of the opinion that the making of such a comment could be considered to constitute demeaning, abusive, or overtly offensive behaviour.”
The National attempted to contact both councillors Goldie and Councillor Meiklejohn and council leader Craig Martin but had not received a reply at the time of going to press.
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