The tyrant and the inner secret circle?

The following article describes a secretive circle of five councillors and their town clerk who together set the agenda for the council and who arguably manipulate the standing orders for their own ends. But this isn't a tale from Libya or North Korea, but right here in Dundalk. Rather than tell the tale with all of it's details from the very beginning, we shall tell you about an incident that occurred last week involving the CPG (Corporate Policy Group) and Frank Pentony the town clerk. In telling this story alone, the extent of the tyranny will be made clear without recourse to writing a lenghty article too wordy for many.

Last week People Before Profit's local disability spokesperson Mark Fitzsimmons and Jim Fergus arrived as observers to the monthly Dundalk Town Council meeting. The previous month we has sent three observers, all signed in by one councillor. The month before that we had an observer attend signed in by a councillor who had also signed in another member of the public. On neither occassion did our members in any way interrrupt the proceedings of the meeting. Last Tuedsay night however, things were different. Connor Keelan informed Councillor Oliver Morgan that from now on councillors could only sign in one observer and that this decision was made by the CPG the previous Friday night.

Mark clearly could not attend the meeting alone nor could he travel home alone as he is comletely blind. It is likely that those in attendance at the meeting and that were involved in disallowing his entry were fully aware of Mark's blindness. Mark had attended meetings before and contacts councillors regularly on behalf of People Before Profit Dundalk. As he could not bring in his guide Jim, he could not observe the meeting and both Mark and Jim had to go home.

The followiing morning Mark contacted Frank Pentony, the town clerk, about what had happened. If anyone should have been aware of Mark's attendance at the previous nights meeting, Frank should have been. Other members who had attended meetings have described how Frank Pentony was always in and out the chamber doors before the meeting. Mark and Jim had arrived twenty minutes early and it is unlikely that he didn't know it was Mark that was attending. He innocently said he didn't realise it was Mark and that he would have needed a guide. He went on to say that the CPG had decided to restict each councillor to one observer and that Connor Keelan, as chair of the CPG, should be the one he is speaking to.

The CPG, for readers who do not know, is a secretive group of five councillors who are supposed to represent all the groups of councillors such as FIanna Fail, Fine Gael and the Independents. Frank Pentony has in the past stated that the CPG rubber stamp the town council meeting agenda that he dictates. From what we know no other councillors are ever involved in their dealings and yet they appear to dictate everything that happens or more to the point everything that the town clerk, an unelected official, demands.

We contacted Conor Keelan, chairman of the Dundalk Town council, and he told us that it was in fact Frank Pentony that brought the suggestion to the table claiming councillors had objected to him privately about three People Before Profit Dundalk members attending the last meeting.

People Before Profit Dundalk members have never given any reason for councillors to object to them excercising their right to attend town council meetings. How likely is it that any councillors approached the town clerk? Not withstanding the unlikely scenario in which three councillors did complain, why would Frank Pentony want to stop members of the public and more specifically People Before Profit Dundalk from attending a town hall meeting you might ask? The answer is simple, People Before Profit Dundalk have been trying to make him accountable for his actions and to stop him from treating Dundalk town like his own fiefdom. A review of our earlier aricles will make this point clearer. Indeed, in an effort to stop us Pentony has called a councillor into his office and threatened to publicly humiliate him if he did not stop co-operating with us. It is understood Pentony has a file on People Before Profit in his office desk and is now making up new laws and rules to prevent us from knowing what is happening at town hall meetings.

Although supposedly an avid and accomplised chess player, Frank appears to be more of a Frank Spencer when it comes to bullying. Over the last number of days he appears again to have slipped up, taking actions without considering their consequences. As we have already discovered, contrary to what Pentony inferred, it was in fact himself who suggested the CPG restrict each councillor to one member of the public. In fact chairman Keelan told us that Pentony identified the relevant section of standing order to him and it was intepreted as restricting the number to one member of public per councillor. It is not clear if Frank Pentony was the initial or primary intepreter on this point. This is a gross misinterpretation. Section 49 of the standing orders entitles every member of the public to attend by "right". Section 50 stipulates the conditions of attendance and nowhere does it mention any number of observers that could be signed in by a councillor at all. Given that People Before Profit members have historically adhered to every stipulation of the standing orders, the only conclusion that we can draw as to why Pentony would want to keep us out is because we are trying to make him accountable for his actions.

We know that Frank Pentony collects our articles for his petty office file and so let this be a notification that we intend on having a minimum of three observers at the next meeting. Any attempt to prevent our right to attend will be met with legal action.

We will continue to keep readers updated on this story. Together we are strong and can make positive change.