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Employment and Appointments Committee 18 September 2012 ITEM 2 ADDITIONAL RESOLUTION 18.9 That the Chief Executive undertakes all requisite employment actions and steps arising from the above recommendations including all necessary and appropriate consultation with Chief Officers (as part of the next stage of this restructure process) in line with the Council’s relevant policies, … Continue reading “Employment and Appointments Committee (Special) Wirral Council 18th September 2012”
Employment and Appointments Committee
18 September 2012
ITEM 2
ADDITIONAL RESOLUTION 18.9
That the Chief Executive undertakes all requisite employment actions and steps arising from the above recommendations including all necessary and appropriate consultation with Chief Officers (as part of the next stage of this restructure process) in line with the Council’s relevant policies, which shall include placing all affected Council officers ‘at risk’ of redundancy.
It seems there is a delayed grievance appeal from an employee of Wirral Council’s Department of Adult Social Services. Representing the historically dysfunctional Department of Adult Social Services at the March meeting was none other than Employee 19 of the AKA report, dramatic drum roll Mr. Richard O’Brien.
No, it’s not the famous Richard O’Brien who used to present the Crystal Maze on Channel 4 in the 90s, and yes I invite you in the comments to state the similarities between Wirral Council and The Crystal Maze, but a guy that goes by the shorter moniker of Rick O’Brien. Who’s Rick you may ask? He is the Head of Branch, Personal Assessment and Planning (whatever that is!?).
Basically he lines managers the managers (that manage the social work teams) for Wallasey, Birkenhead, West Wirral etc… so it must be to do with an employee in that branch of DASS (which doesn’t narrow it down much!)
Brenda Hall is representing the other side, as she’s a branch negotiator for Wirral Council’s UNISON.
Getting out my handy “Who’s Who at DASS”, I find Rick O’Brien’s email address is richardobrien@wirral.gov.uk, which is interesting as Rick O’Brien (as reported as an exclusive on this blog last year) was one of the people who Bill Norman emailed on the 12th December 2011 about not publishing AK’s preliminary draft report.
Wasn’t he the same Rick O’Brien getting criticism in the comments section of the Wirral Globe and mentioned by name in a response to a FOI request involving four week delays in care packages?
Oh and also mentioned in this Wirral Leaks post about the Commissioning conference in London?
Hmm, well he certainly manages to get himself mentioned a lot (and it seems sometimes for all the wrong reasons)! But then it seems, a Pete Sheffield is just met with stony silence over a FOI request for Rick O’Brien’s job description.
But if memory serves correct he was also “Employee 19” in the now infamous “Anna Klonowski Associates Ltd (AKA) Independent Review of the Council’s Response to Claims Made by Martin Morton (and Others)”.
Ahh yes, that Rick. Oh well, apart from my frivolous uses of the <A HREF></a> tags, it’s nice to see there are still people at DASS with grievances to air. I had high hopes for the new Director of DASS, Graham Hodkinson, but it seems that he’s inherited a lot of problems from his predecessor in the role, Howard Cooper. How long will it before the public and employees again trust Social Services/Wirral Council to do the right thing and have a bit more accountability?
I feel at times writing about Wirral Council that it would be so much easier if getting information out of it wasn’t about as painful as pulling teeth, but it’s getting late so I will bring this to a close.
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 Kearney
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)
Against Early Retirement (3)
Cllr Jeff Green (Con)
Cllr Lesley Rennie (Con)
Cllr Peter Kearney (Con)
=============================================================================
Conservative amendment (LOST 3 (Conservative (3)): 6 (Labour (5)) + (Lib Dem (1)))
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.
==========================================================================================================
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.
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Related story by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Echo: Wirral Tories oppose council chief executive’s early retirement
As it was a short meeting I’ve already uploaded it to Youtube. It’s in two parts, part 1 (the first twelve minutes) and part 2 (the last eight minutes), which are also below.
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The agenda and reports can be found on Wirral Council’s website except at the time of writing this, the AOB item entitled “Proposed Change to Senior Management Position”. It’s four pages which I’ve scanned in, Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 and Page 4.
The result of these changes will be that:-
(a) David Armstrong is appointed Acting Deputy Chief Executive,
(b) Surjit Tour becomes Deputy Monitoring Officer and stops being Scrutiny Officer (Head of Legal and Member Services) and
(c) Shirley Hudspeth, Democratic Services Manager stops being Democratic Services Manager and becomes Scrutiny Officer (Head of Legal and Member Services).
The Committee agreed to recommend (a) and (c) to Council and noted (b).
Items 5 (Chief Executives Office) and 7 (Department of Regeneration, Housing and Planning: Senior Management Structure) were deferred to a future meeting.
Chris Hyams was going to respond but Cllr Jeff Green carried on talking. He asking if he would be hearing soon and referred to comments made at a previous meeting by Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive that they would be moving ahead with the timetable.
Cllr Adrian Jones asked if they were ok and happy for him to sign the minutes? The committee were, and Cllr Adrian Jones signed the minutes of the meeting of the 29th September 2011 and the minutes of the meeting held on the 13th October 2011.
Cllr Adrian Jones moved the meeting to agenda item 3 – Delivering the Investment Strategy but referred to the red pen he had used to sign the minutes.
Kevin Adderley went into the detail of the report and how the title of the post had changed. It had been funded on a temporary basis since April 2010, but was “vital for the Enterprise Zone, offshore wind farm and Peel Holdings”.
Cllr Adrian Jones asked if there were any questions.
Cllr Jeff Green said he had missed the briefing, was it in the Budget?
Cllr Steve Foulkes mentioned a report on structure that had gone to Cabinet.
Kevin Adderley said yes, resources were available in the current allocation.
Cllr Jeff Green asked about the role of the person, specifically what would be the role in terms of a series of successful environmental businesses? He said these were now cottage industries, but if they were linked as an area it would encourage more investment.
