Cllr Jeff Green: “We remember the libraries, we remember Martin Morton, we remember what you did in closing care homes, we will make sure that these issues are publicly debated whether the Labour Party likes it or not.”
Cllr Jeff Green said the changes would make it less possible for Martin Morton to blow the whistle under the new arrangements and to have it discussed. He said that although [the existing Constitution] didn’t stop it, it did put it on the record and gave them a chance to do something about it. Cllr Green said the changes would stop them even having a debate asking the Administration to explain themselves, which was partly why the Conservatives thought getting rid of scrutiny committees was “inappropriate”. He expressed his concerns about child protection, to a heckle of Luddite from the Labour benches.
Cllr Green said he was supportive of Area Forums, he had asked for a report on them six months ago at the Leaders Board, however the Chief Executive had never felt it appropriate to bring it back to be discussed. The report had gone to Cabinet instead of seeking all party support. Cllr Green felt the process used had been deliberate in an attempt to try to cause division. He felt the proposals hadn’t been thought through, were unclear and that the new area committees would receive a far meagre sum of money [than the existing Area Forums].
On the changes to Council meetings, Cllr Green felt the Administration would ask officers to write a two-sided report, which councillors could then ask questions on. He said that the councillors wouldn’t get an immediate answer, wouldn’t be allowed to ask a supplementary, but at the end the Cabinet Member would answer all the questions in five minutes.
Cllr Green was also concerned about removing the right of councillors to place on the agenda and have issues debated. He had asked how many other Councils don’t allow councillors to do this and had been told “not very many”. He claimed it was only on Wirral that there was a tendency to “pull power to oneself” and “to sweep any opportunity for backbenchers at all to raise issues and have them debated”. Cllr Green finished by saying, “We remember the libraries, we remember Martin Morton, we remember what you did in closing care homes, we will make sure that these issues are publicly debated whether the Labour Party likes it or not.”
The Mayor referred to Standing Order 5H. Cllr Phil Davies moved the revisions to the constitution, Cllr Ann McLachlan seconded them. There were two amendments, one was proposed by Cllr Jeff Green and seconded by Cllr Lesley Rennie, the second was proposed by Cllr Tom Harney and seconded by Cllr Phil Gilchrist.
The Mayor said he had been advised by the legal officer that Cllr Phil Davies had fifteen minutes and it would be dealt with as one debate only but with separate votes on the two amendments.
Cllr Phil Davies said he was moving the recommendation from Cabinet which had been forwarded to Council around the revisions to the Council’s constitution. He said that the changes that they were discussing had their origins in the recommendations from the Corporate Peer Challenge, which had taken place last October. It had resulted in a detailed report, which contained a recommendation that the Council should “take the urgent steps you have identified to strengthen governance, make sure you complete a full review of your decision-making currently including the Scheme of Delegation assuring the arrangements are understood and adhered to”.
He referred to a review of the overview and scrutiny system arrangements including how councillors were supported by the organisation and how they would get independent and impartial support from the Corporate Policy Unit. They had sought the expertise of the Centre for Public Scrutiny, whose director was present at one of their councillor seminars.
The Corporate Challenge Team had also noted they’d started to consider the role of Neighbourhood Forums, as part of this they’d looked outside Wirral for examples of good practice. Cllr Davies said these issues had already been included in the Improvement Plan, which was part of the work that the Improvement Board had carried out. In addition to this there had been a smaller group of councillors called the Democracy Working Group chaired by the Deputy Leader of the Council looking at governance issues. There had also been five events for councillors, which had been generally well attended as well as a questionnaire that had been sent out to all councillors.
Cllr Davies felt there’d been an exhaustive appraisal of all these matters in response to the recommendations of the Corporate Peer Challenge Team. He wanted to make it clear that the administration intended to continue to operate the Cabinet and Leader model, he acknowledged there was a difference of opinion on this issue between themselves and the other groups on the Council. Cllr Davies said he had not seen convincing evidence that changing back to the committee system would address all the issues that the Corporate Peer Team had raised in October.
He said the changes were predicated on the Council continuing to operate the Cabinet and Leader system with improvements, which they believed was the best model to take forward. His observation was that any model works best if all councillors and officers have a positive mindset and engage constructively, which was their key challenge in changing the culture of Wirral Council.
The aims of the changes were to improve their governance and decision-making procedures, ensure there was clarity about the role of officers and councillors, enhance the role of councillors not in the Cabinet through changing the scrutiny process, establish a new model of neighbourhood working achieving greater engagement with local residents and introduce a new procedure for Council so that it focuses on issues its responsible for and holds the Cabinet better to account.
Cllr Davies said this recognised the outcome of the elections by giving the ruling [Labour] Group appropriate authority to carry out its policies but at the same time having a transparent process for holding the [Labour] Administration to account. He said the changes gave the opposition opportunity to question the Executive and propose alternatives.
On scrutiny the six existing overview and scrutiny committees would be replaced with three policy and performance committees, which would broadly align with the three strategic directorates. There would also be a coordinating committee to oversee the new arrangements and deal with cross cutting matters. The key point he wanted to emphasise was that the new committees would be much more involved in influencing Council policy before it’s considered by the Cabinet. This would be moving away from the current model reacting to Cabinet decisions to a model which influenced policy.
To be effective it would need joint working between the Cabinet and the new committees particularly around the Forward Plan. He gave his assurance that they would seek a new relationship with the Policy and Performance Committees and where possible take on board their views before decisions are made.
The second change was the introduction of four committees based on the parliamentary constituencies to replace the existing network of eleven Area Forums. He claimed that the Area Forums cost £1,300 a year per each resident and that the footprint of the existing Area Forums was too small to coordinate services effectively to save money. Cllr Phil Davies said the new arrangements would save £391,000 would aim to have more strategic bodies with an emphasis on the priorities in the Neighbourhood Plans with an emphasis on tackling poverty and deprivation. Although these bodies would be initially given Council money, there was the expectation that this would be matched by money from other organisations. The Neighbourhood Officers would be based in each constituency whose responsibility would be to engage with local residents.
The third set of changes were to procedures for full Council, Cllr Phil Davies said it was his belief that the current format didn’t work, that councillors spent time trying to score political points against each other and often dwell on issues that the Council wasn’t directly responsible for. The intention of the changes was to move to a procedure which focused on services delivered by Wirral Council, with an emphasis on written reports by the Leader and Chairs of the new Policy and Performance Committees. All would be able to be questioned by a councillor. There would still be notices of motion on the agenda, but these would normally be referred to Cabinet or the relevant committee unless Council thought the issue was sufficiently important to be debated by full Council.
The scheme of delegation was also to be amended to introduce greater clarity and consistency around the roles of officers and councillors. He said that they intended that the new arrangements would apply from the start of the municipal year with the impact of the changes being monitored by the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee and the Leaders Board.
He thanked all councillors who’ve engaged by attending seminars and filling out questionnaires. Cllr Phil Davies particularly wanted to thank the councillors on the Democracy Working Party. He said their aim was to improve governance and make sure they were more open and transparent about how they operate. Cllr Davies wanted to focus on taking the organisation forward on their key priorities which were tackling inequalities, delivering growth in Wirral’s economy and attracting new jobs and new investment and protecting vulnerable people. He also wanted to develop a new culture where they move away from a position where everything is politicised, to concentrating on practical improvements, which will improve the quality of life for residents who councillors represent. Cllr Phil Davies said the changes weren’t particularly radical, to quote a member of the Improvement Board, who attended the last councillor’s development evening, “They are not particularly transformational, they are what normal Councils do.” He said he hoped all councillors would engage with the new models of governance and resist the temptation to oppose everything without giving the changes a chance to work.
Cllr Jeff Green then addressed his amendment. He said nowhere in the Corporate Peer Challenge did it say they should remove the right of councillors to debate in the Council Chamber on behalf of their residents. He also said he didn’t think the Local Government Association Improvement Board had said it either. He said that it was possibly the last debate in the Council Chamber not approved by the Labour Party, as in the future the Labour Party would decide would could or couldn’t be debated in the Council Chamber.
Cllr Green said that Labour did have a majority and the right to determine the outcome of a debate, but what he took exception to what that they wanted to decide what is debated and what isn’t. He said that people were suffering due to the bin tax and increases in parking charges and the closure of…. At this point he was heckled by Labour councillors shouting bedroom tax.
Cllr Davies heckled and was rebuked by the Mayor. Cllr Green quipped that he was glad to see that Labour wanted to end Punch and Judy politics. He said residents were suffering under the bin tax, the increases in parking charges and the closure of day centres, it felt prosaic that they were having a debate on the constitution. The reason he found the constitution important was because he saw its role as protecting the public of Wirral from an over mighty administration.
Cllr Green said that it hadn’t taken very long for the administration and officers to determine “that’s all a bit messy having to go through these politicians, we just want to get on and do things”. He’d always said to officers that said that to him “perhaps you’re in the wrong job” and that councillors were inclined to think about the impact on their constituents.
One of the elements was to remove the Children and Young People and Health and Wellbeing scrutiny committees. Given Wirral’s history and the abuse of the most vulnerable in society and child protection issues it seemed to Cllr Green a “backward and dangerous step” to remove any of the scrutiny.
The meeting started with the Mayor asking the Mayor’s Chaplain to say a prayer. After the prayer the Mayor thanked his Chaplain for his work throughout the year. He directed people’s gaze towards the returning councillor David Elderton, saying that he [David Elderton] was always one for making dramatic entrances (Cllr Elderton was using a Zimmer frame to get to his seat).
Declarations of Interest
He asked for declarations of interest, nobody declared any.
Mayor’s Communications
The Mayor asked for apologies, one was given for Cllr Sylvia Hodrien, he then said that as this would be the last Council meeting he would be chairing, he invited everyone back for drinks in the Round Room, pointing out that the Mayor and Mayoress were paying for the drinks so “don’t drink too much”.
Also mentioned was a service at St. Bridget’s Church at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, all councillors had been invited but not many had replied, after the service would be a light buffet, which again the Mayor and Mayoress were paying for. He then went on to present the Andy Day Memorial Cup for a backbench councillor who had “done good things”, he said that the councillor it was going to this year had supported him in his mayoralty, whether by turning up to events or making donations. The cup was awarded to Cllr Steve Williams.
Petitions
Petitions were the next item on the agenda. Cllr Walter Smith had a 95 signature petition against antisocial behaviour in Mayer Park, Bebington. Cllr Irene Williams presented a petition of forty-four more signatures against the closure of the Eastham Centre. Cllr Tony Smith presented a petition of 250 against the “bedroom tax”, Cllr Leech also presented a petition of 273 signatures against the “bedroom tax”. Cllr Sullivan presented a petition of 130 signatures asking for improvements to road surfaces and markings. Cllr Williamson presented a petition of 577 signatures against the “bedroom tax”.
Cllr Phil Davies said that he was pleased to see the return of Cllr Elderton, who had been seriously ill, and that it was “great to see him here this evening”. He paid tribute to the Mayor and Mayoress, saying what a fantastic job they had both done, how it was a pleasure to accompany them at several engagements and how the Mayor and Mayoress had had a fantastic reception from the people of Wirral. He was impressed with the Mayor’s “warmth, spirit, generosity and kindness that you’ve shown to residents from all parts of this Borough”, said that the Mayor had a passion for Wirral and paid tribute for the work he’d done for the Mayor’s charities. Cllr Davie described the Mayor’s sense of humour and jokes as “unique” and that “most were quite funny”. He said that the Mayor and Mayoress do a wonderful job on behalf of the Borough and wanted to thank both of them.
There was applause, when the applause ended Cllr Green said he wanted to associate himself with the kind remarks of the Leader of the Council, he thought that the Mayor and Maggie had done “an absolutely fantastic job” and he’d been fortunate to attend many events. He said, “It is uncanny how you can break through and speak to everybody”. Cllr Green said that the Mayor was impressed by all the charity work and voluntary work that goes on on the Wirral and how much they welcome the support of the Mayor. He wanted to pay tribute to his “selfless service” and what he’d given up to maintain the position of Mayor and that the service the Mayor had shown was an example to them all. This was followed by more applause.
Cllr Tom Harney wanted to echo the comments of his colleagues and that the one bit of their constitution the public understand is the Mayoralty and that the impact he makes on communities is enormous and valued by the people. He’d been to a number of events and that the Mayor had approached people with good humour, with a combination of dignity and formality. Cllr Harney said that it showed the Council’s visible support to communities in the Borough. He thanked him for the good-humoured way that he had conducted Council meetings. This was followed by more applause.
The Mayor said it was “very, very kind”. Cllr Elderton thanked Cllr Phil Davies for his very kind remarks and said that Barbara and himself had been overwhelmed by the support from officers and people they don’t know in detail very well. It had been appreciated and had gone a long way to helping him to get better. He thanked people for their support and said it was really appreciated. This was also followed by applause.
The Mayor said they were delighted to see him back, he thanked people for their kind words and described the Mayoress as “absolutely fantastic and supportive”.
Two large petitions were submitted during the meeting, one was against closure of the Youth Centres, another of over 14,000 against closure of the Day Centres.
The Conservative Budget amendment was debated first and proposed saving the day centres and setting a 0% Council Tax rise which would’ve been achieved through savings (reducing amounts awarded to those taking redundancy, 5 days unpaid leave, “leaning Council bureaucracy” and reducing support to councillors.
Not unsurprisingly (despite Lib Dem support) the Conservative budget was defeated by Labour councillors.
The Lib Dem Budget went further and proposed saving a whole raft of services the day centres, youth centres, grants to voluntary groups, school crossing patrols, Birkenhead kennels and ruling out a charge for collection of garden waste. It also proposed keeping the Area Forums and reducing councillors to sixty. This would’ve been achieved through savings in agency workers, reductions in councillors allowances and senior management pay, capping the redundancy payouts, less glossy brochures, reduced audit fees and some other minor savings. This Budget also would’ve led to a 0% increase in Council Tax. The Lib Dem Budget was also rejected.
So the Budget that passed was the unamended Labour Cabinet’s budget recommendation of the 18th February 2013, this Budget will lead to an overall increase in 2% in Council Tax (any higher would trigger a referendum) and includes closure of one of the day centres, cancelling the Tranmere Rovers sponsorship, getting rid of Area Forums, a cut of £1.5 million to the budget for Childrens Centres/Surestart, a cut of £1 million to the Street cleaning budget, a cut of nearly £1 million to the Home Insulation scheme and various other cuts to Council services. For the full details of Labour’s budget you can read the papers on Wirral Council’s website.
Monday’s Council meeting started the usual way with prayers. Following the prayers the Mayor asked for apologies for absence. Apologies were given for Cllr Elderton and Cllr McLachlan. The Mayor said that Cllr Elderton had improved in hospital for two weeks and hoped they would have a wonderful evening. He also said he’d be stricter on keeping people to time limits on speaking as if they had been adhered to last time a further eight councillors would’ve spoken, with a warning that the Deputy Mayor said he would be much tougher during his time in office.
No declarations of interest were made.
The Mayor brought forward item 5 (by-election results) and asked for it to be noted. Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative leader) congratulated the two new Conservative councillors at being elected.
A number of petitions were submitted.
Cllr Patricia Glasman submitted a petition opposing planning application APP/12/01520 for a ‘One to One’ Birth Centre in New Brighton.
Cllr Kathy Hodson told of a petition of 690 signatures opposing the withdrawal of maintenance of the bowling greens.
Cllr Leah Fraser put forward a petition of 36 signatures opposing planning application DPP4/12/01491 for an extension to St Georges Primary School in Liscard.
Finally, Cllr Clements presented a petition of 118 signatures opposing withdrawing maintenance of a bowling green in Greasby.
The meeting moved onto approval of the Council Tax Support scheme. Cllr Phil Davies gave a brief speech, bemoaning the fact that their budget was being cut by 10% next year, but that pensioners and people with disabilities wouldn’t lose out. Cllr Gilchrist indicated his disagreement with the scheme and said there would be problems collecting money from people who hadn’t had to pay Council Tax before. Fifty-five councillors voted for the scheme (Conservative and Labour) with the seven Lib Dem councillors against it.
Cllr Phil Davies stating it was unfortunate that they didn’t have the right figures on the senior management restructure from the start, but that they’d had assurances it wouldn’t happen again. The changes were agreed unanimously.
The changes to delegation on employment matters were more controversial. Cllr Phil Davies said that following the feedback from the peer challenge review, which recommended clarifying roles to ensure councillors did “not get overly involved in operational matters”. He asked for a quarterly report to the Employment and Appointments Committee on the gradings, grievances and disciplinary action decisions.
Cllr Jeff Green said they would be supporting it.
Cllr Pat Williams said that poor working practices had been brought to councillor’s attention during these meetings and that they had often found in the employee’s favour. She said that they would not know about these issues if it was taken out of their hands.
The Labour and Conservative councillors voted for (55), the Lib Dem councillors voted against (7).
Item D (Collection Fund 2012/2013, Council Tax Discounts (Annual Review) and Council Tax Base) was agreed unanimously.
Item E (The Employment Contract of the Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service) attracted more disagreement. Cllr Phil Davies said that it was “important to make the change now”, whereas Cllr Green didn’t understand the sudden urgency or why there shouldn’t be an open and transparent process instead. He said it was disappointing as the Chief Executive should have the full support of councillors.
Cllr Harney said he couldn’t understand why the issue of a permanent contract couldn’t be linked to the performance appraisal of the Interim Chief Executive. He said he hoped it was not a precursor to employment practices that had “bedevilled the Council”. Cllr Pat Williams said that Labour had created division which was “unnecessary and insensitive” and referred to adverse and avoidable press publicity. Cllr Mark Johnston said during his time as councillor he had seen three political leaders, four Chief Executives and damning reports on poor governance. Cllr Gilchrist referred to the peer review.
Cllr Davies responded to the comments made and referred to a conversation with Cllr Green in December, Cllr Green disputed how Cllr Davies portrayed this. He said he was more than happy to show the public proof that this was incorrect. He said, “To suggest anything else is not only inaccurate, but it actually puts at risk any sort of trust we can have in terms of when we actually have a meeting, whether those views will be accurately represented or not.”
Cllr Davies (Phil) said that it was his recollection of the meeting and said the “business of the Council must go on” and taunting Cllr Green by saying, “this is why Jeff is no longer Leader of the Council”. He said “I believe this is the right thing to do” and said he was “showing leadership” and that it was “the right thing to do”.
A card vote was called for. Conservative councillors voted against, Labour councillors voted for. Lib Dem councillors voted for and against. The final vote was 36 in favour, 26 against.
Present (6/7,3:2:1) Employment and Appointments Sub-Committee
Committee Room 2, Wallasey Town Hall
26th October 2012 3pm
Cllr Leslie Rennie, Conservative
Cllr Jeff Green, Conservative
Cllr Patricia Williams, Liberal Democrat
Cllr Phil Davies, Labour
Cllr Ann McLachlan, Labour
Cllr Adrian Jones, Labour Cllr George Davies (from 15:30 (agenda item 3)), Labour
Committee Services
Andrew Mossop (Committee Clerk)
Not Present (Legal adviser) Wirral Council officers
Chris Hyams, Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development
Graham Burgess, Acting Chief Executive
David Armstrong, Deputy Chief Executive
Unknown male
Unknown female
Press/public (agenda items 1-3)
J and L Brace
The meeting originally scheduled for 3pm started at 3.06pm. There were no microphones used.
1. Appointment of Chair Andrew Mossop asked for nominations for Chair.
Cllr Ann McLachlan proposed a nomination for Cllr Phil Davies.
Cllr Adrian Jones seconded a nomination for Cllr Phil Davies.
There was a vote on the nomination for Cllr Phil Davies for Chair by show of hands.
Andrew Mossop asked if there were any other nominations for Chair?
No other nominations for Chair were made.
Cllr Phil Davies was therefore appointed Chair of the Employment and Appointments Sub-committee (unopposed). Cllr Phil Davies got up from his seat and walked to the Chair’s chair in the room and sat down.
The Chair (Cllr Phil Davies) asked for any declarations of interest?
2. Declarations of Interest
No declarations of interest were made.
3.Exclusion of the press and public
Cllr Phil Davies proposed the following recommendation on the advice of a Council officer:-
“That in accordance with section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business, on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to that Act. The public interest test has been applied and favours exclusion.”
This was agreed.
A member of the public (the author of this blog) asked why the resolution didn’t include the paragraph/s number and asked if they were required to include theparagraph or paragraph number in the resolution?
The Chair Cllr Phil Davies said he would seek advice on the subject. He sought advice on the subject and was also given advice by Cllr Jeff Green that it was paragraph 1. His resolution was amended to:-
“That in accordance with section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business, on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by the paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to that Act. The public interest test has been applied and favours exclusion.”
The amended resolution was put to the vote and agreed. The press and public were excluded for agenda item 4 (Appointment of Strategic Director: Families and Wellbeing).
The public made their way to the door to leave the room.
Cllr George Davies arrives.
The public left the room.
Agenda Item 4 Appointment of Strategic Director: Families and Wellbeing
The councillors now including the late Cllr George Davies considered the applications for the new post of Strategic Director (Families and Wellbeing).
The following resolution was agreed:
That the following 5 candidates be long listed for the next stage of the selection process which shall be for officer interviews on Tuesday, 13 November – candidate numbers, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Transcript
Andrew Mossop: any nominations for the Chair?
Cllr Ann McLachlan: I nominate Phil Davies.
Andrew Mossop: Chair, err, Cllr Phil Davies, is that seconded?
Cllr Adrian Jones: Yes.
Andrew Mossop: Are there any other nominations?
Cllr Phil Davies: Right, OK, err folks, … see you’re busy…errm Item 2 this is a standing item, Members Code of Conduct Declarations of Interest. Has anyone wish to declare any interests?
No, OK, no interests, errm, item 3, is item for you to agree the exemption to exclude the members of the public from the meeting. Is that agreed?
Various councillors: Agreed.
John Brace: Sorry, there are no reasons in it, but the case law says there has to be reference to a paragraph, so errm is it possible to give the reasons,
Cllr Phil Davies:
John Brace: that’s supposed to be in the resolution you passed you see but unfortunately it’s missing from the agenda.
Cllr Phil Davies:
Cllr Jeff Green: on the basis of paragraph 1, I can suggest we actually go carry forward the exemption.
Cllr Phil Davies: So we should agree on the basis of paragraph 1?
John Brace: Is that agreed on paragraph 1?
Cllr Phil Davies: Is that agreed on the basis of paragraph 1?
Councillors on Employment and Appointments Committee
Cllr Leslie Rennie (Conservative)
Cllr Peter Kearney (Conservative)
Cllr Andrew Hodson (Conservative) deputy for Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative), spokesperson
Cllr Mark Johnston (Liberal Democrat), spokesperson
Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour), Chair
Cllr Phil Davies (Labour)
Cllr George Davies (Labour)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour)
Officers
David Armstrong, Acting Deputy Chief Executive
Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager
Chris Hyams, Head of HR and Organisational Development
Surjit Tour, Legal adviser
Andrew Mossop, Committee Services Officer
In attendance:
Cllr Adrian Jones (Cabinet Member for Corporate Services)
Two members of public
00:08 to 00:15 The meeting started with the Chair, Labour councillor Paul Doughty welcoming people to tonight’s meeting.
1. Members’ Code of Conduct – Declarations of Interest00:15
He asked if the councillors had any interests to declare? No declarations of interest were made.
The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty asked Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager to introduce the report. Tony Williams said it was a regular report to update the Committee on attendance and referred to figures in the report.
Cllr Harry Smith (Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Transport) and Cllr Chris Meaden (Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Leisure) arrive.
Tony Williams said the report showed that health issues were the highest cause of absence, which they were doing work to address, with an example being given of stress awareness. He also referred to the absence rate at the Department for Adult Social Services. He asked if there were any questions?
Cllr Paul Doughty said the report was for noting, so it was noted.
4. Update on Managing Workforce Change and Redeployment 03:20
The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty asked Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager to introduce this report.
Tony Williams said there were now fourteen employees on the register, he said at the last meeting there had been six, but five of these had been resolved. He said three on the register had complex circumstances, with two of these being due to disability, he referred to exempt appendix 12.
The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty referred to exempt appendix 12. He asked if anyone had any questions?
Cllr Mark Johnston, Liberal Democrat spokesperson asked about the reason behind the increase in employees on the register from the Department of Law, HR and Asset Management?
Tony Williams answered Cllr Johnston’s question by saying it related to a graduate trainees program. Cllr Mark Johnston asked a further question to Tony Williams. Tony Williams replied.
Cllr Leslie Rennie, Conservative asked about a point she had raised at the briefing. She wondered if the senior management restructure would lead to people’s jobs being subject to risk. She asked if in future members of the Committee, Leaders and Deputy Leaders could receive updates more regularly, such as fortnightly?
Chris Hyams answered.
The Chair Cllr Paul Doughty asked the Committee if they were happy to note the contents of the report? The report was noted.
6. Restructure of Human Resources and Organisational Development 10:00 7. Monitoring Use of Compromise Contracts 29:25 8. Appeals SubCommittee 30:24 9. Employment and Appointments SubCommittee Minutes 14/6/12, 28/6/12, 4/7/12, 5/7/12 31:33 10. Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 1) 31:46 11. Exclusion of press and public 31:52
12. Exempt Appendix – Update on Managing Workforce Change and Redeployment
13. Exempt Appendix – Monitoring Use of Compromise Contracts
14. Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 2)
Cllr Phil Davies (Labour, Chair, Finance, Leader)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Labour, Corporate Resources)
Cllr Harry Smith (Labour, Streetscene & Transport)
Cllr Pat Hackett (Labour, Regeneration and Planning Strategy)
Cllr Tony Smith (Labour, Children’s Services & Lifelong Learning)
Cllr Chris Meaden (Labour, Culture, Tourism & Leisure)
Cllr George Davies (Labour, Housing & Community Safety, Deputy Leader)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour, Improvement and Governance, Deputy Leader)
Officers
Shirley Hudspeth (Committee Services)
Surjit Tour (Acting Head, Law, HR and Asset Management)
Graham Burgess (Interim Chief Executive)
In attendance
Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair, Employment and Appointments Committee)
Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative, Spokesperson, Employment and Appointments Committee)
Cllr Leslie Rennie (Conservative, Employment and Appointments Committee)
Cllr Tom Harney (Liberal Democrat, Leader)
The meeting started with Chris Hyams (Head of HR & Organisational Development), Kevin Adderley and Fiona Johnstone leaving the room as they would be affected by the proposals.
Cllr Phil Davies (Labour, Chair) welcomed people to the meeting. He asked councillors if they had any declarations of interest to make? None were given. He moved the meeting onto agenda item 2 (Senior Management Restructure) and indicated to the Interim Chief Executive Graham Burgess to speak about this item.
Graham Burgess referred to the Improvement Board, the Improvement Plan, the support of all three party leaders and proposals to address concerns. He said it was the first stage of a wider management reshaping. Mr. Burgess said the proposals would create three posts, which were key roles.
Cllr Anne McArdle (Labour, Adult Social Care and Health) arrived at 5.06pm.
The Interim Chief Executive continued to talk about “key corporate priorities”, his desire to “break down silos” and “challenge across departments”. He said that 5.4 [of the report] gave more detail and said it was his intention to make a further report. He referred to a Director’s meeting on Thursday and that there would be numbers of posts they would be losing and it was likely to look at and need to ask senior officers to leave.
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour, Improvement and Governance) spoke. Cllr Phil Davies (Labour, Finance and Best Value) said he wanted to address the corporate governance issues. He said he would support the recommendations and referred to the Employment and Appointments Committee later. Cllr Davies (Labour, Finance and Best Value) referred to “radical changes”. He announced there was no “Any Other Business” and the meeting closed at 5.17pm.
Committee:
Cllr Paul Doughty (Chair)
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Adrian Jones
Cllr Phil Davies
Cllr Ann McLachlan
Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative Spokesperson)
Cllr Lesley Rennie
Cllr Peter Kiernay
Cllr Phil Gilchrist deputy for Cllr Mark Johnston (Lib Dem Spokesperson)
In attendance:
Cllr Tom Harney
Chris Hyams
Bill Norman
Various officers
+public + press
Ian Coleman left the room whilst this item was discussed having declared an interest in it.
The committee voted 6:3 to approve the early retirement request of Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive. He has (unless the item is called in or judicially reviewed) retired as of the 7th June 2012.
The voting was as follows (on whether to grant Early Retirement) was 6:3 and passed. An earlier Conservative amendment was lost 3:6:-
For Early Retirement (6)
Cllr Paul Doughty (Lab)
Cllr Phil Davies (Lab)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Lab)
Cllr George Davies (Lab)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Lab)
Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem) deputising for Cllr Mark Johnston (Lib Dem)
Moved by Cllr Jeff Green (Spokesperson)
Seconded by Cllr Lesley Rennie
This Committee notes:
(1) the contribution and service that Mr. Wilkie has given to the people of Wirral over the last 23 years.
(2) the decision on Mr. Wilkie, advised by the Director of Finance and the Director of Law, to allow two members of staff to leave under compromise agreements, less than 1 working day prior to the publication of the AKA report without bringing any potential disciplinary issues to the attention of this Committee.
(3) the queries raised by myself as Leader of the Conservative Group and subsequently as Leader of the Council in response to the report of Mr. Wilkie: Agenda Item 15: Interim Management Arrangements at the meeting held on 29th September 2011 remain unanswered.
(4) that if his retirement was to go ahead these matters may remain secret and unanswered.
Therefore this Committee believes that until these matters are adequately reported to this Committee and Members have had the opportunity to express a view it is clearly inappropriate to approve the extra cost and request for Early Voluntary Retirement from Mr. Wilkie.
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Labour recommendation (CARRIED 6 (Labour (5)) + (Lib Dem (1)) :3 (Conservative (3)))
PROPOSED: Cllr Phil Davies
SECONDED: Cllr Ann McLachlan
That the Employment and Appointments Committee approve the following;
The Early Voluntary retirement of Mr Wilkie on the 7 June 2012 and the release of his pension on the grounds of efficiency of the service.
