Wilson and Civic Centre Tantrums

[steveL]

Much more to come on this but for the time being it's enough to know that departing Assistant Director Damien Wilson was told last week to clear his desk and GO in rather undignified circumstances, He wasn't officially due to leave until around 22nd April.

HBC are desperately trying to keep the lid on it. Aye Well.....life can be a bitch. :-)

[steveL]

In 14 years, I think we've had more e-mails about Assistant Director for Regeneration, Damien Wilson than any other council officer. His questionable involvement with the Seaton Domes, the Hillcarter Hotel and his Niramax friends is well known but his rapid, undignified exit last Friday can only raise more eyebrows. Wilson was told to clear his desk, his council provided mobile and laptop were unceremoniously taken off him and he was effectively then told to 'bugger off' before being escorted off site.

His new job at Rotherham is not due to start until April 22nd, although he did have a few days holiday to use up beforehand, so would probably have disappeared sometime in early April.

Even so, the prospect of those few extra days hanging around the corridors of HBC proved too much for Director Denise Ogden who on Friday, sent out an e-mail telling both staff and councillors that Wilson was 'history'

"I have taken a decision today that Damien should step down immediately from his post and this will enable him to focus fully on his new employment."

Nothing is ever quite what it seems though. Wilson was always a bomb waiting to go off and it seems now, apparently, it has.

We will be covering the latest £25m Wilson bombshell probably some time next week but it's one of the latest e-mails that has me intrigued.

Wilson's rapid departure is said to have been finally triggered by connections with Dubai and Hartlepool United. Our Pools friends might be able to shed some light on this as it seems to be well off the normal field of play to me.

[crisstw]

anything to do with this ?

https://www.hartlepool.gov.uk/news/article/213/football_club_and_council_sign_up_to_shared_vision

[steveL]

oh I think that was just a silly stunt aimed at winning over the Pools vote. When you read it, there's very little in it about Pools and it's mostly a regurgitation of the usual Vision pap - CAB's plan to flood Hartlepool with minimum wage, zero hour contracts...

No, I'd be thinking Arab money and re-development myself with a nice little consultancy fee floating around somewhere.

[Inspector Knacker]

Correct, winning over the Pools vote is what It's all about. Nothing heard or seen for years then oddly just before the election of Christopher is photographed looking Pools friendly, a bit like Mandelson who did actually attend some games. I suspect a desperate exercise in trawling for votes wherever there's even a whiff of one. If someone told them the seals in Greatham Creek had a vote I bet thry'd be up there basking on the mud flats whispering sweet nothings about seal friendly policies and a Vision for the seal community, unless they've already done it ?

[tankerville]

Well apparently Damien Wilson told Denise Ogden just what he thought of her in No uncertain fashion before clearing his desk.

This comes as No Surprise it is now known that Karen Oliver is leaving along with Clair Clark - Malcolm Walker's partner 'aka;  Labour's New Deal for Communities.

Look like the rots setting in and their getting out while the getting's good. There's a big re-shuffle next month with refuse workers & Bin Men, they've also been told if any Councillor makes a complaint it has to be dealt with immediately .

Maybe a whole lot of S**t is about to hit the streets of Hartlepool.

[Lord Elpus]

It comes as no surprise that both Karen Oliver and Clair Clark are leaving.   There are both at the coal face and have to deal with some of the more obnoxious Councillors face to face.  I suppose there's only so much a person can stomach before they've had enough.

One key Officer told me that since Mad Dog became Chair of Neighbourhood Services the whole section was sick of her interfering in their work on an almost daily basis.

[fred c]

I often wonder how people who are poorly educated & in some instances barely literate, feel able to use political bombast to pressurise competent, proffesional employees.

I also wonder why those employees put up with the bullying & abuse placed on them for so long.

But most of all i wonder why, those charged with the senior management of the organisation & wellbeing of its employees allow it to happen in the first place.

[steveL]

It's a potent combination. Sometimes I think HBC shares more characteristics with organised crime than it does with proper governance.

[Alnwickist]

Silence from Wells is deafening, Wilson was his right-hand gangster. Whatever Wells clients needed to be sorted prior to planning applications he did.
Another unhealthy connection was ex-HBC employee Steve Bell, now CEO of Gus Robinsons, Wilson was in control of tenders which companies that Bell worked for won.
Makes you wonder.