Convener Jim Wyness thanked members for their sterling efforts, along with officials and frontline staff. John Porter, still fulfilling his role as affable Tory, paid tribute to Wyness's "equable" chairmanship, and so the back-slapping went on.
Praise, too, for the recent storytelling festival, which is about communal tradition-bearing and not about veracity in the council. As embarrassed officials sought to remedy a fault with the television to show the video presentation, Wyness filled in: "We've got 50 storytellers on the council and no one's asked for their contribution. Some of their stories are better."
It took the technical wizardry of John Stodter, director of education, to fine-tune the set. "I suppose that's worth 80 grand a year," quipped one veteran cynic.
