She asked the general manager Phil Tolhurst why the councillors hadn't been informed about the policy right after they were elected and why it hadn't been enforced.

She asked whether it was information that he would have received from the Department of Local Government through an email notification and he admitted that it would have been, but that he doesn't always get to read all of the hundred's of emails that he receives every day.

The Non-Labor Councillors Tony Hadchiti, Mazhar Hadid, Ned Mannoun, Peter Harle and Gary Lucas supported her motion and Cr Jim McGoldrick was also in agreement with it.

The motion was carried, after a few changes from Cr Napoletano herself and so now the council officers must design the new policy.

The discussion before the final vote touched on whether the councillors who were on the committee which decided whether the Mr Tolhurst's contract should have been renewed were qualified to make the decision.

Obviously, the implication was that maybe it was the wrong decision to extend the general manager's contract. Then councillors started querying who checks up on Mr Tolhurst's expense. Now, I don't know if they were implying that someone should be watching his activity or just finding out how things work. If it's the first option, that has me wondering why they are suspicious of Mr Tolhurst and as far as the second option goes I would be very concerned that they don't know how things work so far in.

But I think this is all getting into dangerous territory. I mean it's obvious that it's either the council officers holding out on the councillors, or withholding information intentionally. Or of course, the councillors are in the wrong and just don't know what to ask for.

That was part of the councillors argument after all, they said that it was unfair to have the onus put on them because they didn't always know what to ask for. But shouldn't they know what to ask for?

Several councillors have told me since then that even if they do ask for the right documents to do with development applications or local government legislation that they are interested in, often they will be referred to the council website to find information, but often the

right information isn't on there. Or they'll ask council staff for a specific piece of information and they won't get it.

Cr Hadchiti argued during the council meeting that it isn't appropriate for the council officers to wait for requests, because it is their jobs just to notify the councillors of everything that they need to know.

Cr Napoletano said that sometimes the information provided is wrong, or at least riddle with mistakes and whenever she talks to council officers they flinch because they are under strict instructions not speak to councillors. Only directors are allowed to speak to councillors.

Now, all of this comes back to Mr Tolhurst. These are his rules and his way of running the council.

And the councillors have questioned Mr Tolhurst's methods and his authority over the council repeatedly. Now, that's a problem, the general manager is integral to running the council and seems to be doing a thorough and impressive job, if the councillors keep questioning him at every turn how will that affect his authority over his staff? Not to mention his willingness to work affectively with them?

Liverpool Mayor Wendy Waller's take on the whole matter is that the councillors are playing political games. She told me that whenever they ask for information it is given to them and it is up to the individual to pursue the information they need. As far as training goes,

she told me that she encourages all the councillors to get as much training as they like and it's up to them to organise it.

But generally it seems to me that she thinks the councillors should trust the council officers work more than they do, because after all the officers are qualified in the fields that they are working in. She's also said that the councillors should exercise their own initiative when it comes to tracking down information and getting more training.

So it seems to me that two camps are emerging, or maybe three depending on the way you look at it. It seems that there is the council officer camp, led by Mr Tolhurst and then there's the non-Labor councillor camp, possibly including Councillor Jim McGoldrick, who is part of Labor, at least for now, but has gone rogue after the infamous and unfortunate phone message he received from Ms Waller.

But then in this case where do the other Labor councillors and mayor come into it? Well it appears that more often than not, they vote for whatever recommendations the council officers put up. And they're very careful not to side with the non-Labor group on anything, so it seems that they must be seen as being on the officer's side.

I know that it sounds simplistic, but this is the pattern that I'm seeing emerge.

So there it is we have two teams competing against each other on council and the non-Labor team seems to be missing out because, or so they say, the other team is withholding necessary information. And of course that means that Liverpool is missing out long term, because the two teams are so keen on competing against each other they seem to be forgetting what they're really there for: to do what's right for Liverpool.

If this is the case, it's an awful state of affairs. And needs to be thoroughly investigated if you ask me. The council officers are there to provide information to all of the councillors.

They can't just paint part of the picture, especially if that could encourage the councillors to vote a specific way, which could end up being the wrong way to go for Liverpool in the long term, and not the direction which the voting public wish to go in.

The repercussions of all this could be startling. I just hope that a thorough investigation is done and it's weeded out soon. Because the councillors should be the ones running council.

They're the ones the public voted for.

Not the council officers and general manager. The officers are there to achieve what the public wants to be achieved not to follow orders. It's time to set this right!