Council furniture

I was annoyed (mostly with myself for not seeing it coming), that we found ourselves in a stupid debate lasting 40 minutes at the Council meeting on 26th Oct over chairs for the council chamber!
Every building needs to have furniture that meets its requirements. Ours is a historic building that needs furniture that reflects both is design and its role as a place of civic pride and decision-making. That costs more money than your average seat in your home or in a hall somewhere.
Of course what then became reported was the cost (somewhere between £80,000 and £100,000). Its very easy to make a scandal out of a high number when the subject is something like furniture. And of course it becomes an easy weapon to hit politicians with by suggesting, completely inaccurately, that this is somehow a sign that we have got our priorities wrong. It was one item of an agenda of over 20 items which covered many subjects or concern to the city like drug and alcohol treatment, transport issues, climate change, support for those who have lost money because Farepack went bust, nursery fees and much more.
But instead we are made to look like all we care about is how soft the seat is for our backsides. Maybe that is sadly inevitable given the public view of those of us in public service, but on the other hand, these decisions need to be taken and if we did it behind closed doors then there would be an even bigger, and in that case more justifiable outcry.