News / SCT trustees condemn Wills’ conduct
SEVEN trustees of Shetland Charitable Trust have signed a strongly-worded open letter condemning the organisation’s vice-chairman Jonathan Wills for publicly attacking its chairman Bobby Hunter.
In a highly unusual step, the trustees went public to defend the integrity of its chairman while accusing Wills of displaying “lamentable contempt” for trust members, “the trust itself and the democratic principles that he claims to champion.”
Wills, who strongly believes the trust should have a majority of directly elected trustees, dismissed the criticism and said he would take it as a compliment.
Last week he took aim at Hunter in the local media suggesting it was “deplorable” that the lord lieutenant of Shetland “did not remain impartial” in discussions over the direction of the £230 million trust and brought “the monarchy into politics”.
In June, however, the SIC said it no longer wished to provide councillors to sit on the board.
Vice-chairman Wills was reported as saying that Hunter “became partisan for that policy of having an undemocratic trust” – an accusation the chairman said he “completely refuted”.
The letter, signed by trustees Keith Massey, Peter Malcolmson, Ian Napier, James Smith, Drew Ratter, Andrew Cooper and Tom Macintyre, sought to clarify three issues surrounding Hunter’s role at the trust.
They denied he was appointed to the trust because of his role as lord lieutenant, while they also said he was “strictly impartial” during discussions into the future of the trust.
“Firstly, Bobby Hunter is a trustee because he was selected to serve by an appointments panel, not because of his role as lord lieutenant of Shetland,” the trustees wrote.
“Historically, the lord lieutenant was a member of the board by virtue of his position, but this practice was ended in 2012 under the last reform of the Trust’s governance arrangements.
“Secondly, in his role as chair Mr Hunter maintained a strictly impartial position on the independent review of trust governance led by the Institute of Directors. Mr Hunter allowed all trustees their full say, including Dr Wills who was the only trustee granted the privilege of having an appendix summarising his views incorporated in the final report.”
The trustees said Hunter “in no way attempted to influence the trustees’ decision” during a meeting last May to decide on new governance arrangements and that he allowed a “full and open debate”.
“Once that decision had been made, however, he quite properly fulfilled his duty in representing the choice made by a majority of trustees. To suggest otherwise is plain and simply wrong,” they continued.
“Thirdly, unlike the vice-chair, the chair has accepted this democratic decision and adhered to the terms of the trustees’ code of conduct which binds us to the principles of collective responsibility (i.e. to support the trust’s position when decisions have been taken) and respect for fellow trustees. As vice-chair, Dr Wills has additional duties both to support the chair and to represent the decisions made by trustees, whether or not he personally agrees with them.”
The trustees signed off by suggesting Wills has gone back on his own values of democracy and at the same time failed to promote the “good work” of the trust’s members.
Responding to the letter when contacted by Shetland News, Dr Wills said: “Mr Hunter assured me personally that he would be impartial, and then he voted for making the trust less democratic whereas he should have abstained, particularly in view of the fact, whether the other trustees like it or not, he is the sovereign’s representative.
“I have consistently defended the trust and its interest when some of its signatories have remained silent and have allowed the trust to become a figure of fun over numerous issues.
“I have nothing but contempt for anyone who votes to remove democratic control from the trust which looks after almost half of Shetland’s oil money, and I take their comments as a compliment.”
The SCT trustees’ letter can be read in full here.
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