Norman's bill just keeps on rising, £7,883.88 for external legal advice on setting a budget when he wasn't there

Norman’s bill just keeps on rising, £7,883.88 for external legal advice on setting a budget when he wasn’t there

Norman’s bill just keeps on rising, £7,883.88 for external legal advice on setting a budget when he wasn’t there

                                                                  

Every year Wirral Council has to set a budget for the next year. In fact Wirral Council have been doing this since 1974 (and probably in shadow form for the year before that).

For some reason in 2013, at Wirral Council someone decided to ask Frances Woodhead of Eversheds (a legal firm) for advice. Ironically (considering what happened to Bill Norman) she lists on Evershed’s website her experience on “Advising on sensitive senior officer dismissals” and her experience as “Director of Legal Services at Sheffield City Council”.

Now this however is the interesting point, Bill Norman as regular readers of this blog knows left Wirral Council getting a payment of £146,416 in September 2012 and the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee found “no case to answer”. So after this point he was no longer an employee of Wirral Council.

Yet these invoices relate to advice given in February 2013 for the 2013/14 budget, five months after Bill Norman was no longer employed by Wirral Council! Were Eversheds not told he had left? Who was Frances Woodhead advising if it wasn’t actually Bill Norman as stated on the invoice (who was no longer employed by Wirral Council)? The invoices quite clearly show travel expenses of £61.40 which means somebody must have travelled somewhere to meet someone (who obviously wasn’t Bill Norman)!

What was it about the 2013/14 Budget that required nearly £8k of legal advice anyway?

Budget setting legal costs £4680 00p Counsels fees May 2013
Budget setting legal costs £4680 00p Counsels fees May 2013
Budget setting legal costs £3203 88p Bill Norman Frances Woodhead March 2013
Budget setting legal costs £3203 88p Bill Norman Frances Woodhead March 2013

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Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (21st September 2012) (Wirral Council)

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee
Date: 
21st September 2012
Time: 9.30pm

Committee Room 3

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (6/7 present)

Cllr Ann McLachlan, (Chair), Labour
Cllr Adrian Jones, Labour
Cllr Ann McArdle, Labour
Cllr Lesley Rennie, Conservative
Cllr Mike Hornby, Conservative
Cllr Dave Mitchell, Liberal Democrat

Wirral Council Officers
Surjit Tour, Acting Head of Law, HR and Asset Management
Shirley Hudspeth, Committee Services Officer
Chris Hyams, Head of HR & Organisational Development
Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager
David Armstrong, Deputy Chief Executive?
Unknown officer (male)

In attendance
Cllr Paul Doughty, Labour, Chair of Employment and Appointments Committee
Two members of the public (John Brace, Leonora Brace) (items 1 to 3)

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour) apologised for starting the meeting late.

1. Declarations of Interest

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan Labour asked for any declarations of interest. None of the six councillors (including the Chair, Cllr McLachlan Labour) made any declarations of interest.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on the 20th August 2012

The minutes of the Investigation & Disciplinary Committee on the 20th August 2012 had been published on Wirral Council’s website.

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan asked if the minutes were agreed?

Cllr Lesley Rennie disputed the minutes and stated they were missing that she had said at the last meeting that she wanted it minuted that she wanted Richard Penn to be invited to the meeting.

"Richard

She pointed out that this was missing from the minutes.

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan said it was fine as Mr. Penn was “in the building” [see above photo of Richard Penn waiting in lobby, Ground Floor, during agenda item 4 (not the room the meeting was being held in)]. She thanked Cllr Lesley Rennie for pointing this out. There were no more comments on the minutes of the meeting held on the 20th August 2012, so the Chair moved the meeting onto agenda item 3.

3. Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Chair expressed her opinion that the press and public should be excluded from the meeting for agenda item 4. She expected the two members of the public to leave, however a member of the public waited for the Committee to agree with this opinion. The reason she gave was that it related to “staff”.

The two members of the public left.

4.  Statutory Officers Preliminary Investigation – Preliminary Report/Report from the Independent Investigator

The Committee received the reports from Chris Hyams (Proper Officer), Tony Williams (Acting Employee Relations Manager) and Richard Penn (Independent Investigator).

Only Chris Hyams and Tony Williams were present at the start of this item.

The reports were about the suspensions of Bill Norman, Ian Coleman and David Taylor-Smith, following the decision made at the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee meeting of the 20th August 2012 (agenda item 4).

Decision:

David Green (Director of Technical Services): Unknown outcome
David Taylor-Smith (Deputy Director of Finance): Unknown outcome

Ian Coleman (Acting Chief Executive):
Outcome: request made to Employment and Appointments Committee (3/10/2012) for Early Voluntary Retirement (£82,528.50) effective from 5th October 2012.

Bill Norman (Director of Law, HR and Asset Management): “no case to answer”
Outcome:  “no case to answer” “no further advice appropriate”
Compromise Contract (£155,416) (agreed by Employment and Appointments Subcommittee (Compromise Contracts) of 20th September 2012. Made redundant as of 30th September 2012. 

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee | 20th August 2012 | Item 1 – Appointment of Chair | Item 2 – Declarations of Interest | Item 3 – Exempt Information – Exclusion of the Press and Public | Agenda Item 4 – Update in Relation to the Suspension of Council Officers

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee
Date: 20th August 2012
Time: 4.00pm

Committee Room 2

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee minutes (20th August 2012) (approved 21st September 2012)
Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (20/8/2012) Agenda

Present

Councillors (7/7)
Cllr Dave Mitchell Liberal Democrat
Cllr Adrian Jones Labour
Cllr Lesley Rennie Conservative
Cllr Mike Hornby Conservative
Cllr Ann McLachlan Labour
Cllr Brian Kenny Labour
Cllr Anne McArdle Labour

Wirral Council Officers
Shirley Hudspeth (Committee Services Officer)
Chris Hyams, Human Resources (Head)
Tony Williams, Human Resources (Acting Employee Relations Manager)
Surjit Tour, Acting Head of Law, Human Resources and Asset Management
David Armstrong
Unknown female
Unknown male

Also
Items 1-3 Two members of the press/public

The agenda for this meeting can be found here.

Agenda Item 1 – Appointment of Chair

Cllr Brian Kenny and Cllr Adrian Jones proposed Cllr Ann McLachlan as Chair.
There were no other nominations so Cllr McLachlan was made Chair.

Cllr Dave Mitchell proposed Cllr Adrian Jones as Vice-Chair, however it wasn’t seconded. There was a second valid nomination as Vice-Chair so Cllr Brian Kenny was made Vice-Chair.

Agenda Item 2 – Members’ Code of Conduct – Declarations of Interest
Councillors present made no declarations of interest.

Agenda Item 3 – Exempt Information – Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Chair suggested that the public and press were excluded from the rest of the meeting for agenda item 4 (Update in Relation to the Suspension of Council Officers) (reason given – Information relating to any individual and agenda item 5 (Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair) (although there was no AOB).

Agenda Item 4 – Update in Relation to the Suspension of Council Officers

The Investigation and Disciplinary Committee received an update in a 16-page preliminary investigation report about the matters that led to the suspensions of Bill Norman, Ian Coleman and David Taylor-Smith (but also relate in part to the earlier suspension of David Green).

It related in part to:-

1) This public interest report published by the Audit Commission on 8th June 2012 entitled Highways and engineering services contract award and management.

2) The Council’s policies on senior officers declaring interests and whether these had been followed.

3) Various other matters relating to the above four suspended individuals.

The following resolution was then agreed,

“(1) the progress being made in respect of the preliminary investigation be noted; and

(2) the way forward in relation to the three Statutory Officers, as outlined in paragraph 5.6 of the report, be agreed.”

Agenda Item 5 Any Other Business 
It has been confirmed by Wirral Council that there were no items of Any Other Business agreed by the Chair tabled at the meeting.

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (Wirral Council) Photo 1

Left (L to R): Unknown officer (male), Shirley Hudspeth (officer)

Right (Left to Right)
Cllr Dave Mitchell (Lab)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Lab)
Cllr Brian Kenny (Lab)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Lab)
Cllr Mike Hornby (Con)
Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (Wirral Council) Photo 2

Left: Shirley Hudspeth

Right Foreground
L to R Cllr Mike Hornby (Con), Cllr Lesley Rennie (Con)

Right Background
Cllr Dave Mitchell (Lib Dem), Cllr Adrian Jones (Labour)
Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (Wirral Council) Photo 3

Background: Shirley Hudspeth

Foreground: Left to Right
Tony Williams (Officer), HR
Unknown Officer? (female)
Chris Hyams (Officer), HR
Unknown Officer? (male)