The councillor or elected representative is just that, he or she is elected to represent the public in any way necessary at local government level.
People put a number on the ballot paper beside the name of someone whose judgment and opinions on all matters arising are trustworthy and fit in with their own thinking on what is best for the city and community in which they live.
It is important that councillors at all times in the course of their term of office (despite friendships that can be built up with officials of the council office who often forget that they are not there to make policy or set their own agenda ), remember who elected them.
Developers or friends looking for planning permission should not influence their judgment over that of the common good,
The mayor was in olden days called the sovereign and there is a list of mayors that goes back a long way. The mayor of today has a lot less power but has more contact with council officials than usual during his term as mayor. But he or she must be conscious that his role still is one of an ‘elected representative’ and not a member of the executive staff of the borough council.
In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s the mayoral office was held by a small group of councillors sometimes for years on end, and there is no doubt there was during those years a serious fault with a system or council membership that allowed that much control by such a few people.
This ownership of the mayoralty by the few was not something that was confined to one party. How did Tynan, Crotty and McGuinness manage to have about 15 mayoralties among them in those years? What type of members of the corporation (as it was called then ) sat year after year and accepted this? Despite the pact that now exists between Fine Gael and Labour I do not believe anyone would accept the same mayor year after year after year in present times.
The present and future is what councillors must concentrate on. There have been occasions lately where particular councillors talked a lot about fathers and grandfathers and uncles who held mayoral office in the past. This is of minor interest generally and relevant only to the people involved, or for their own family gatherings or even a small bit of padding in an address, but no more.
For public occasions it can be overdone. It can look like an appeal for affirmation of their importance based on their forebears. Well it does not do it........ nor does one’s forebears give anyone the right to be a councillor or mayor. It’s all about the present, and future and honest elected representatives speaking on behalf of the public.
