The former mayor of the city of Ripon, who resigned ahead of a vote of no confidence, has been talking to YorkMix Radio.
Councillor Jackie Crozier says she was never officially told why and says it took a toll on her mental health.
She told David Dunning, presenter of the YorkMix Sunday Late Show that she decided to resign ahead of the vote because she just couldn’t take the level of pettiness and squabbling that was going on, as well as the rumours that were going around.
She said: “It was a very difficult time and I still keep hearing some of the rumours that are going around and it’s hard because I live in Ripon and I work in Ripon, I have loads of people who rely on me, I’ve got a brilliant business and brilliant friends and family and colleagues who have stood by me.
“The amount of people who have stopped me, they are still talking about it to me and I’ve been very honest about the effect on my mental health.
“I just don’t think it was fair for the councillors to do a vote of no confidence, they should at least have had a conversation with me before hand”
In the conversation, the former Mayor was asked about the sequence of events.
Jackie Crozier: “Well, I got an email from Councillor Brodigan (Current Mayor Lib Dem, Barbara Brodigan) and I think it was around the start of September, asking for an extraordinary meeting of the full council. And I was obviously quite surprised to see that I was the subject of that.”
David Dunning: “Was there any reason given?”
Jackie Crozier: “No reason whatsoever and I was also told that Councillor McHardy would be seconding the meeting. So I was expecting another email from her which came shortly after”
David Dunning: “Was that the stage that you were aware a no confidence vote was being planned?”
Jackie Crozier: “So obviously, when the first email came in from Councillor Brodigan it said that there was a vote of no confidence against myself, which I was quite taken back about, as you can imagine.
“Well, it was a shock, really, because I thought I was doing a good job as Mayor of Ripon.
“Now I have a rather large business to run, and I thought I was managing everything really well and trying to show the people of Ripon that you can run a business and you can do public office, be a councillor and be Mayor as well. So I thought I was doing a good job. I just didn’t have any idea that it was coming”
David Dunning: “You obviously must have tried to find out what was wrong.”
Jackie Crozier: “Councillor Williams, Councillor Horton and Councillor Flatley tried to phone some of the other councillors to try and find out what was going on, to try and hear the other side of whatever the story was.
“There was nothing, and there was no dialogue between myself or any of those seven councillors as to what it was that I’d actually done to insist on a vote of no confidence against myself”
David Dunning: “And you couldn’t think of anything?”
Jackie Crozier: “No, no, I absolutely couldn’t think of anything. And I was, I was very adamant that if I had done something wrong I would have resigned not just as mayor, but as a councillor too.
“I’m not in the business of lying to the people of Ripon.”
David Dunning: “Were there any instances that you could think of where perhaps some interaction with people had not gone as planned, or perhaps something that you thought was okay, but they might have interpreted it in a different way?
“Maybe you being robust about something”
Jackie Crozier: “No nothing. And I think it comes down to if you’re going to put a vote of no confidence in against the Mayor of Ripon and bring the city into disrepute, bringing attention onto the city, at least try and have a conversation with that Mayor first to try and find out what was wrong, get an outcome that it wasn’t in the public domain, wasn’t in the press, and if I had have done something wrong, then tell me we can try and work it out, or I would resign as mayor, resign as a councillor.”
Watch the full interview here
Jackie Crozier then addressed the issue of a letter of resignation which appeared to come from Cllr Sid Hawke. He says he asked the current Mayor, Barbara Brodigan, to help him write one when he was minded to leave Ripon City Council.
He changed his mind that evening and crossed back to join the Independent group as reported by YorkMix.
In the letter it is mentioned that in August, three staff members resigned and neither the Leader of the Council, the Deputy Leader or the Mayor (at that time Cllr Jackie Crozier) informed the full council of what had happened.
The letter says that was the main reason for calling a vote of no confidence in Jackie Crozier.
She replied: “Well, it’s, it’s finally good to hear what the reason is because up until this point I still didn’t know. At least I now can answer that question. I was on the staffing committee as Mayor.
“When you take over as Mayor, you stand down from all the committees. But I carried on on the staffing committee to keep that continuity.” She added that it is the job of the chair to inform the council when staff have left.
She continued: “And actually, Councillor Jo Bate (who has since given up her seat) did inform the council that the chief officer had left. So I’m a bit confused.
“And what I find really shocking is that all this has happened over the fact that I’d not sent an email that I shouldn’t have sent in the first place.
“That’s what the chair of staffing does. And I’m, quite frankly, just so disappointed and so upset by it that I’ve personally had to go through this and I’m really, really sorry to the people of Ripon that this has happened.”
You can hear the full interview on YorkMix Radio on Sunday November 2 at 10pm and on the listen again service the day after.
So why did Jackie Crozier decide to resign as Mayor rather than wait to get to the bottom of why there was a proposed vote of no confidence?
This was her reply in the YorkMix Radio Interview.
“In the lead up (to the vote) it was becoming increasingly difficult on myself. I have a very busy events business. I run twelve artisan markets, and there was some gossip going around that, you know, and it wasn’t said to me, but there was lots of gossip going around that they wanted me out.
“Don’t get me wrong, I am so appreciative of the amount of messages that I was getting, it was so overwhelming. I was walking in the street, and people were saying, What have you done? and it was becoming really, really overwhelming for me.
“It was taking a real toll on my mental health. And at the time, I also had a slipped disc, which I was having treatment for.
“Everything was just really getting on top of me because it’s such a lot of work being a Mayor, and the fact that the council were wanting to get rid of the leaders post and the deputy leaders post, that would mean that everything was falling on me.
“I had to make the really difficult decision to put my business and my traders first. I’ve got 500 traders booked into my markets, and they’re small, independent traders, businesses that need me to be on top form. And I just couldn’t take the level of pettiness and squabbling as well, and the rumours that were going round.
“I’ve tried my hardest for Ripon, and I just wanted to serve in public office and not go through this level of scrutiny and it was just, it was a very, very difficult time.”
