31 January (Part 2) - Services cut. Fees and salaries up
Probably
that headline is not entirely fair. Council services have been cut steadily over
the past four years and fees have been raised, some by huge percentages -
parking permits spring to mind - but salaries have been frozen. The next four years
will bring more of the same except that pay levels will rise by 1% in April. Few
will argue that the council’s foot soldiers deserve a break but why the same
should apply to those on around £100,000 a year and more should defy government
policy is more difficult to fathom. Chief Executive Will Tuckley it should be
said, has announced he will
not take the rise.
The General Purposes Committee met on Wednesday to further discuss the pay
increase and some other staffing matters.
Something bad had happened to the sound system in the two days since
the Cabinet
meeting. The same loudspeaker which provided clear sound last Monday was not
working at all and so only the clearest of voices could be heard. Will Tuckley
and councillor Colin Campbell who took the trouble to address their microphones came over loud and clear, and chairman Lucia-Hennis
was at a just acceptable level, but councillors O’Hare, D’Amiral and Cheryl
Bacon did not speak into their microphones and were close to inaudible.
The
first item of note came from the Chief Executive who said that the Director
of Finance and Resources, Mike Ellsmore had decided to retire and he set out his
plan to find a replacement and redefine Ellsmore’s role. In essence the
Resources function would be removed from the post.
Councillor Campbell also commented on Mike Ellsmore’s “wider [than finance]
role” and his experience of “where the bodies are buried”. “Pressures would be
coming off other officers, one of the pressures being 2 Watling Street but it
would be a great mistake not to retain a Director of Finance on the Board”. He
suggested Mr. Moore, may be able to take up some of these roles and “now is the
right time to do it”.
Councillor Cheryl Bacon was substituting for committee member Maxine Fothergill
and mumbled that she had “some reservations about the Director of Corporate
Services taking over some of that role” and that she “had some concerns about
the way that the role of the Director of Corporate Services had grown”. She
wondered if the proposals were a “temporary fix”. Another of her concerns was
“the possibility of any downgrading of that vital [Director of Finance] role”.
Will Tuckley said he did not want to see any downgrading either and his
proposals were not a temporary fix.
Councillor Alan Deadman spoke for a minute but a combination of the opposition
being seated back to the audience and the poor PA system made his comments
impossible to follow. Whatever Alan’s comment may have been, councillor Campbell
thought it “was a very good point”.
Councillor Nick O’Hare’s one contribution to the meeting was to say that finance needed a strong
leader and a strong team. Councillor Campbell reminded the committee that Mr. Ellsmore’s
finance team included a number of officers close to retirement.
The next Agenda item was about council tax. The PA system and the distance to
his nameplate prevented positive identification of the main speaker but I’m
pretty sure it was council officer John Peters. Fortunately he spoke clearly but
his speech was largely ‘technical’ in nature. I learned that collection rates
have been improved and several new housing construction schemes had pushed up
the tax base.
Item
8 was the Pay Policy Statement by Human Resources Manager, Nick Hollier. The same Nick Hollier who refused to interview a vital witness when I
complained about Cheryl Bacon’s lying account of her ’Closed Session’
meeting and who made no effort to answer my complaint, preferring
instead to label me abusive, offensive and unreasonable. You may judge whether
my email deserved such cavalier dismissal for yourself.
Mr. Hollier began by saying that “the council has a strong track record of
publishing its remuneration policies on its website and through accounts” but
failed to mention that it
objected to the government guidelines
and even now fails to comply.
Councillor Campbell said the government guidance is “one of those bits of
guidance that makes you put your head in your hands and wonder what they were
drinking the day they made it up”. Isn’t that true of almost everything that
comes from this Coalition?
Councillor Deadman was not happy with “drawing back retirees taking bucket loads
of pension being re-employed as consultants on £1,400
a day”. “You have to wonder why you let them go in the first place.” Mr. Hollier
told us that this happens only in the most exceptional circumstances. At the
vote Alan Deadman registered his dessent.
Item 9 was Nick Hollier again. The only interesting thing to my ears was that average staff
sickness rates had fallen to 5·1 days a year which he said was very good. I can
only agree; when I was responsible for almost exactly the same number of staff
as Will Tuckley I struggled to get the number down below nine. Perhaps that is
why I was only paid a fifth of Will Tuckley’s quarter million.
The meeting was closed 37 minutes after it began. Given the state of my internet
connection I have not received any information about what may have happened
outside after councillor Lucia-Hennis decided
she
would rather spark another row than accept a question.