No Working Relationship

The board of Onchan Commissioners heard last night that the lead member for finance, David Quirk and the authority’s finance manager are not able to work together.

Claims were made in several directions during a heated debate as members discussed a no confidence motion aimed at Mr Quirk. For the sake of total openness around our reporting, commissioner Robin Turton, is my [Sam’s] dad.

Moved by commissioner Anthony Allen and seconded by the chair Kathryn Williams, the unsuccessful motion sought to have Mr Quirk removed from his position as lead member for finance with immediate effect.

Mr Allen began by saying that a working relationship between the board’s lead member for finance and the Commissioners’ finance manager is ‘paramount to meeting the needs of this role’, adding that due to the breakdown of the relationship between Mr Quirk and the finance manager ‘the board has not been kept full informed’.

He added: ‘Commissioner David Quirk has not shown any interest in this important role. Following board meetings in May and June, on June 22 2022, a letter was sent by the finance manager to all commissioners. Contained in this latter is reference to inappropriate and aggressive behaviour towards her to commissioner David Quirk.

‘No officers, except the clerk, have attended any board meetings since June 2022, as a result of his behaviour during meetings. This decision to keep staff away from meetings was made by the clerk, who has a duty of care to his staff.’

Mr Allen added that the clerk, Ross Phillips, had also written to the board seeking a resolution to the issues between Mr Quirk and the staff and that it had been agreed at an extraordinary meeting between members that Mr Quirk should resign from his role on the board.

No minutes from this meeting, which Mr Allen said happened on September 26, appear on the authority’s website, despite two meetings being held since that date.

Mr Allen later added that chair Kathryn Williams had asked Mr Quirk to stand down from his role and when he said he wouldn’t do so, she suggested a motion of no confidence would be a possible solution.

Nothing Wrong

In response to Mr Allen’s statement, Mr Quirk denied an wrongdoing and claimed that Mr Allen was only concerned about his roe ‘because he didn’t get the lead member for finance himself’.

He added: ‘In fact, neither Mr Allen nor Mr Crellin got the support for a position within the authority. Or it could be because I have a written formal complaint lodged against Mr Allen and Mr [Derek] Crelling about their highly inappropriate threatening behaviour at a board meeting in June, which was witnessed by all board members and the CEO.’

What followed was not an easy watch for members of the public present as Miss Williams, as chair, sought to defer the matter to another meeting. However, Mr Turton said that having allowed Mr Allen, Mr Quirk, himself and herself to speak on the motion, the matter should be dealt with there and then and that all members of the board should be allowed to speak.

Commissioner Zara Lewin said that she didn’t believe that the statement made by Mr Allen was ‘completely accurate or genuine’, although she did ‘recognised the validity of some points’.

Reflecting on earlier comments that a no confidence motion was a last resort, Miss Lewin said she wasn’t sure that point had been reached.

Mr Crellin said that the issue was taking the clerk away from his responsibilities and causing wider issues with the authority’s staff and that he would be supporting Mr Allen’s motion.

Ms Logan said that she, like Miss Lewin and Mr Turton, didn’t believe the end of the road had been reached and couldn’t support the motion.

Ultimately, the motion failed, with Mr Quirk joining the above three members in opposing it, while Mr Allen, Mr Crellin and Miss Williams supported it.