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, … 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.

 

Interim Chief Executive (Wirral Council) Graham Burgess

Graham Burgess As regular readers of this blog will know the previous permanent Chief Executive of Wirral Council Jim Wilkie retired early on the 7th July 2012. Since then to great fanfare a Graham Burgess was appointed to the role of Interim Chief Executive on Monday evening 16th July 2012 (although technically until he signs an employment contract he’s just a member of the public).

Fine you may say, for once things are running “smoothly” at Wirral Council and they’re not spending around a year trying to recruit someone? Well not exactly, as the plan is that Graham Burgess won’t be stepping down as Chief Executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council and NHS Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus for another three months (which takes us to October 2012 September 2012). He’ll be the fourth Chief Executive Wirral Council has had this calendar year. All these Chief Executives (as Wirral’s constitution reserves this power to them) have been appointed by Wirral Council councillors.

Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 7/6/2012 Item 12: Early Retirement Request (Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive)

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

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 15th March 2012 Report on meeting Part 1

Well as promised in a previous post here’s a writeup of part of last Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, well at least some highlights.

Item 8 (Chief Executives Office) along with its its appendix have been deferred to a future meeting.

Cllr Jeff Green wanted to waive call-in on item 27 regarding St. Anselms College but was given legal advice by Surjit Tour that he couldn’t because the officers who have to agree to it to waive call-in weren’t present.

The nomination for Mayor and Deputy Mayor for 2012/2013 were as follows:-

Mayor: Cllr Gerry Ellis

Deputy Mayor: Cllr Dave Mitchell

Bill Norman (Director of Law, HR and Asset Management), Ian Coleman (Director of Finance) and Jim Wilkie (Chief Executive) were all absent from the Cabinet meeting.

Err, let’s see, Craig Manning has written about item 16 for the Wirral Globe which can be read online. Certainly Cllr Jeff Green wasn’t happy with the news, but Social Services has a reputation for overspending by £millions each year.