The words seemed to stick in the throat of the lord provost as he read them.
“I will apologise – cough – to Councillor Mrs Stewart, Councillor Tissera and anyone else in the chamber who feels I have not treated them fairly.”
A pause.
“You have my assurances I will ensure everyone will be treated fairly and listened to going forward,” Lord Provost David Cameron said.
But it was a script that took 10 minutes for him to perfect, not without the legal and diplomatic input of three top officials taking home a collective £250,000 a year.
The besieged civic head of the city hunkered down with council chief executive Angela Scott, interim chief governance officer Jenni Lawson and interim legal services manager Alan Thomson.
Just moments into the meeting before a smattering of people in the public gallery, he found himself struggling to regain control.
How did the lord provost get here?
It’s a row that has been bubbling away since Mr Cameron took the post last May. On Tuesday, it finally boiled over.
A month ago, Mrs Stewart accused the SNP/Liberal Democrat administration of “an attack on the Catholic community” as they slashed funding for the city’s Nativity scene.
“The nativity is not Catholic. It’s Christian. And your statement…. I find slightly offensive,” the lord provost interjected.
There was a heated back and forth then, ending in both promising to go home and watch the post-game playback on the council website.
Mrs Stewart said she was defending Christian faith communities.
Mr Cameron claimed she said the move had targeted Catholics “specifically”.
“I will listen to the playback and if I am wrong, I will openly apologise to you,” he promised.
Councillor Jennifer Stewart took lord provost to task
Mr Cameron managed only 16 words of welcome at the Town House before that IOU was cashed in within seconds.
The problem for the pair, embroiled in dramatic loggerheads for months, was that both were correct – as you can see here.
But added to the claims of sexist shouting down of female councillors, Mrs Stewart would not budge.
Leaping to her feet, the Queen’s Cross, Hazlehead and Countesswells independent said: “I would like to seek assurance that I am not going to experience religious intolerance as I have at the previous council meetings, intimidation, sexual harassment as I see it, heckling, constant interruptions, and not being allowed – by you as lord provost – free and fair debate and speech.
“I am stopped at every turn. It’s not acceptable.
“As a woman coming up on her 60s I will not tolerate it any longer. Enough.”
The two have been in backrooms talks in recent months after a fiery clash in December ended in Mrs Stewart storming out of the chamber.
Fierce row erupted when Lord Provost David Cameron was 16 words in
The lord provost twice tried to utter “I hear what you are saying” as a means of moving on and grappling back control of his own meeting.
It did not work. There was a full five minutes of negotiating.
“I said I would give you a public apology if I was wrong and on that point, I was not wrong,” Mr Cameron tried.
For that effort, he was told Mrs Stewart “cannot be hung in a democratic society for my words and lived experience”.
Then the lord provost apologised for his colleague’s “interpretation” of his words.
Continued impasse was met with a loud sigh by former university academic Cameron, followed by an angry flash of teeth (“You don’t know anything about me”) at Councillor Stewart’s final lecture (“This isn’t about me, maybe it’s about you”).
Virtual world offers no respite for under-fire Lord Provost David Cameron
And just when the lord provost breathed a sigh of relief… he was blindsided from long distance.
Up popped Labour’s Deena Tissera on the big screen via Microsoft Teams, requesting an apology for his “out of order” behaviour.
It was another blow for Mr Cameron, who arrived in the high-profile job already shrouded in “concerning” misconduct controversy.
Ms Tissera too has accused Mr Cameron of sexism since gaining election in May – a charge he denied.
“I respect the position of lord provost very much and I think as lord provost you should consider treating us all equally,” Councillor Tissera said on Tuesday.
“I have had a couple of instances where you have not treated me in the appropriate manner.
“You have asked me to be quiet and stopped me from speaking – particularly on issues probably you didn’t like to hear.”
It was certainly an unwelcome intervention for the lord provost, who paused the fledgling meeting for 10 minutes to strategise how best to even reach the first agenda item.
His two-line apology, a climbdown from the non-apology proffered minutes before, was enough.
At least it is for Councillor Mrs Stewart, “as long as it’s minuted”.
Speaking to The P&J on Wednesday, she added: “I accept his apology – as long as it’s not an apology for ‘my perception’.”
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