Barnet Council: Choosing the right person for the job?

One of the most important portfolios in the Barnet Council Cabinet is resource management. The job of this person is to make sure that the council uses it's resources wisely (ie Doesn't lose our cash). The previous holder of the job who has just resigned was Mike Freer. Under his stewardship, the Council has mislaid £27.4 Million in an Icelandic Bank, with no hope of getting it all back from them. They've also gone £11 million over budget on the £12 million Aerodrome road Bridge project. Council borrowing has increased sevenfold since Labour ran the show. £1.4 Million was spent on obsolete computers, many of which the council are paying to store. Council officials have had tellies costing over £2,000 bought for their desks. Does this sound to you as if Mike Freer has done a good job managing your resources?

What did Mike Freer have to say about his own departure and the new incomig team?

This is a cabinet put together to solve the long- term strategic problems that face our borough, particularly given the unprecedented and appalling state of the public finances caused by Gordon Brown

So there you go, someone else is to blame for Iceland, Aerodrome road, The Tellies, etc, etc.

Now if I was one of the 33 Tory Councillors selecting a new person for the job, who would you choose. I'd hope you'd want the best person. The safest pair of hands. Who have they chosen? Lynn Hillan. According to the Not The Barnet Time website, she ran a company which went bust in 2006 owing £121,000. Over £10,000 was owed in taxes. That isn't my idea of a safe pair of hands.

My question is this. If Hillan really is the best of the 33 for the job, as her colleagues seem to think, what are the rest of them like?