Author: John Brace

Cllr Davies said he took a slightly different view, but would not push it to a vote. He said if they involving recruitment people that they would have a wide knowledge of the pool of talent. In addition they would have a knowledge of contracts in the private sector and local government.

He said they would benefit from consulting a chief executive or retired chief executive. He said it was the most important appointment that will be made and it is worth the investment. He said it should be based on consensus and this was also essential to go down this route. In an ideal world they would find a breadth of expertise and knowledge that a recruitment consultancy form could bring to the table which would lead to a better appointment.

Cllr McLaughlin asked as a point of info that there didn’t sem much difference in cost between the two forms of advertising and using an external adviser.

An officer answered for clarity that the amount was only for the online section of The Times. A search consultant would be over and above the costs in the report. The cost depended on the advice. Maybe a local Chief Executive could be used. It would depend on availability and choice.

Cllr Davies said it was “important to have consensus”. He was not specifically seeking to creation division. He agreed over the shared Chief Executive issue. This happened to a couple of London Boroughs. Given the geography and the fact we were the 9th largest Metropolitan Borough in the country and 3rd largest in the NW and given the amount of change we needed a dedicated Chief Exec. He said it would be interesting to see how London, especially works. Regarding the type of contract he had no strong views either way. There was a downside to a permanent contract, what happens if it went spectacularly wrong? A fixed term contract gave more opportunity to remove someone.

There were good quality candidates if it was just for a finite period of time. If a permanent contract was suggested his thoughts were if it does go wrong where do that leave us? Reflecting on the salary, a good salary would attract good quality candidates. In the current climate the public wouldn’t understand or support a large salary, he suggested £130,000.

Cllr Green said circa £130,000. Cllr Davies replied by saying there would be room for manuever. He asked about the contract issue.

Cllr Green continued by saying that “where we are, sharing is not the right thing to do”. He had always been fond of sharing a Chief Executive with the PCTs/hospitals. However the health service had its own set of issues. The PCT would collapse but we will work it all through. Wirral was the 9th largest Metropolitan Borough in the country and 3rd largest in the North West. It had a budget of ~£900 million. It had thousands of employees and was big and complicated. It was important it had its own Chief Executive. In terms of fixed term contracts this didn’t work. The management training courses he had been on said bonuses were a ropy concept, which is why they took bonuses out of the system. It was a difficult decision. However it was best that Chief Executives did what was in the public interest rather than for a bonus.

He said the scale of the Chief Exec’s salary was developed at a different time. It had led to the bizarre cycle of inflation of Chief Executive’s pay. It should be £120,000 to £135,000. He said “our staff expect the organisation to tighten its belt”. He suggested £130,000 as ten times the multiplier of the lower paid. He was going for circa £130,000 and advertising a permanent appointment of Wirral’s own Chief Executive.