Councillors recommend that they chose who will receive £thousands for sitting on new Pensions Board

Councillors recommend that they chose who will receive £thousands for sitting on new Pensions Board

Councillors recommend that they chose who will receive £thousands for sitting on new Pensions Board

                                                                   

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Above is video of the Pensions Committee meeting of 19th January 2015.

Pensions Committee Wirral Council Merseyside Pension Fund 19th January 2015 L to R Pat Phillips Cllr Geoffrey Watt Cllr Mike Hornby Cllr Chris Carubia Cllr Nick Crofts Cllr Harry Smith
Pensions Committee Wirral Council Merseyside Pension Fund 19th January 2015 L to R Pat Phillips Cllr Geoffrey Watt Cllr Mike Hornby Cllr Chris Carubia Cllr Nick Crofts Cllr Harry Smith

I’ll start this piece by declaring an interest as my father is paid a pension by the Merseyside Pension Fund administered by Wirral Council.

Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee (which form part of the governance arrangements for the Merseyside Pension Fund worth billions of pounds) met yesterday evening. The agenda and reports for this meeting are on Wirral Council’s website.

The first main item on the agenda was the creation of a Pensions Board which I’ve previously written about when it was discussed at a previous meeting of the Pensions Committee last year.

The original recommendation in the report had been “That Members consider the proposals for the Wirral Pension Board set out in this report and the draft Terms of Reference and advise officers of any required amendments before submission for approval and implementation by Wirral Council.”

The Chair of the new Pensions Board will receive £2,751 a year (plus travel & subsistence expenses) and the employer/employee representatives will receive £1375.50 a year (plus travel & subsistence expenses). Just before the meeting started a much more detailed recommendation was handed out. This was agreed at the meeting and is now a recommendation to a future meeting of all Wirral Council councillors. One of the implications of the revised recommendation is that three councillors (who are not on the Pension Committee) will form a selection panel to choose who is on the new Pensions Board.

The complete revised recommendation is below:

“1. Pensions Committee agrees and recommends to Council:

a) the establishment of a Pension Board pursuant to regulations (The Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2014) in accordance with the Terms of Reference set out in appendix 1, subject to the membership being agreed by Council and the Terms of Reference being amended to confirm that the board shall be quorate providing a minimum of 4 members are present.

b) that the Pension Board shall have the authority to do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the discharge of any of its functions.

c) the establishment of a selection panel by the Council in accordance with appendix 3 to consider and assess applications received and undertake interviews. The selection panel is to make recommendations to Council with regard to appointments to the Board.

d) that the Head of Pension Fund be authorised to implement the administrative arrangements required to undertake a recruitment exercise necessary for the selection and appointment of members to the Board.

e) that the definition of independent member for the purposes of the Board shall be agreed as:

  • not a current elected member or employee of a participating scheme employer
  • has not been an elected member or employee of a participating scheme employer in the past 5 years

f) that in respect of the two active member representatives, the initial appointment to the Board for one of the representatives shall be for a term of 6 years and the other for 4 years; that in respect of the two representatives of local authorities, police/fire/transport authorities and parish councils, the initial appointment to the Board for one of the representatives shall be for a term of 6 years and the other for 4 years.

g) that the Pensions Committee (and the Heads of the Pension Fund and of Legal and Member Services after consultation with the Chair of the Pensions Committee prior to the meeting of the Council in March 2015) may recommend to Council changes to the Board and its Terms of Reference having regard to the final form of regulations and statutory guidance.

2. that the Selection Panel’s Terms of Reference as set out in Appendix 3 shall be that:

  • it shall comprise 3 elected members
  • it shall not consist of current Pensions Committee members
  • There shall be two advisors to the selection panel: the Head of Pension Fund and a representative from the Fund’s external auditors.

3. That the following amendments be made to the Board’s terms of reference set out in appendix 1.

a) Section 3 “Members of the Board shall cease to be a member of the Board if they do not attend two consecutive meetings and fail to tender apologies which are accepted by the Board” be substituted for “Other than by ceasing to be eligible as set out above, a Board member may only be removed from office during a term of appointment by the majority agreement of all of the other members. The removal of the independent member requires the consent of the Scheme Manager”.

b) Section 3 the following shall be added: “In the event of the independent member not being available for a Board meeting, a Vice Chair for that meeting shall be determined by the Board members”.

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11 more pages of Wirral Council councillors' mileage claims (Elderton, Hornby, Kelly, Povall, Salter, H Smith and P Williams)

11 more pages of Wirral Council councillors’ mileage claims (Elderton, Hornby, Kelly, Povall, Salter, H Smith and P Williams)

11 more pages of Wirral Council councillors’ mileage claims (Elderton, Hornby, Kelly, Povall, Salter, H Smith and P Williams)

                                                      

A long time ago I was up to the travel expenses for Cllr Phil Davies in the extra pages supplied last month that should’ve come in the original tranche in September.

The rests were scanned in, just until now haven’t been uploaded or blogged about. For the sake of convenience, I am just putting the remaining pages below. These aren’t complete for the 2013-14 as many are pages originally missing from those supplied by Wirral Council’s Human Resources department as part of the original request. For the other pages for those councillors you’ll have to look elsewhere on this blog.

These are a further eleven pages that cover Cllrs David Elderton, Mike Hornby, Stuart Kelly, Cherry Povall, John Salter, Harry Smith and Patricia Williams. I may blog about them in detail another time, but at least by publishing the rest of the pages are in the public domain should you wish to view them. Councillors are in alphabetical order by surname. There are multiple pages for some councillors.

There is also a mysterious taxi contract for councillors. I’m still awaiting further details on that and the Mayor and Deputy Mayor’s expenses for 2013-14.

Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1
Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 2 of 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 2 of 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 3 of 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 3 of 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 4 of 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 page 4 of 4
Cllr Stuart Kelly expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1
Cllr Stuart Kelly expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim 2014 page 1 of 1
Cllr Cherry Povall expenses claim 2014 page 1 of 1
Cllr John Salter expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1
Cllr John Salter expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 2
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 2
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 page 2 of 2
Cllr Harry Smith expenses claim 2013 page 2 of 2
Cllr Patricia Williams expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1
Cllr Patricia Williams expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 1

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An update on what’s been happening at Wirral Council about Lyndale School (and other matters)

An update on what’s been happening at Wirral Council about Lyndale School (and other matters)

An update on what’s been happening at Wirral Council about Lyndale School (and other matters)

                                                    

Councillor Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services) at the Special Cabinet Meeting of 4th September 2014 to discuss Lyndale School L to R Cllr Stuart Whittingham, Cllr Tony Smith, Cllr Bernie Mooney and Lyndzay Roberts
Councillor Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services) at the Special Cabinet Meeting of 4th September 2014 to discuss Lyndale School L to R Cllr Stuart Whittingham, Cllr Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services), Cllr Bernie Mooney and Lyndzay Roberts

It’s time for a brief round-up on latest developments on Lyndale School.

The draft minutes of the call in on Lyndale School held on the 2nd October 2014 were published a few days ago and come to twenty-nine pages long. The meeting itself was about five hours long with a short adjournment part way through which explains the length of the minutes. They make for interesting reading.

The draft minutes of the call in meeting on 2nd October 2014 about Lyndale School go to tonight’s Council meeting to be approved (agenda item 10 (Matters Referred from Policy and Performance Committees)).

There are also many different minority reports tabled to do with recent call ins that have been heard. The minority report from the Conservative Group about Lyndale School is here.

In addition to the minority report on Lyndale School there are a further three minority reports about matters unconnected to Lyndale School:

Lib Dem Group (about the call in to do with concessions for the Armed Forces at leisure centres) proposed by Cllr Phil Gilchrist.
Conservative Group (about the call in to do with concessions for the Armed Forces at leisure centres) proposed by Cllrs Chris Blakeley, Wendy Clements, Mike Hornby, Steve Williams and Gerry Ellis.

Lib Dem Group (Health Homes/Forest Schools call in) proposed by Cllr Stuart Kelly.

So because of the minority report submitted by the Conservative Group there will be a further vote of all councillors on Lyndale School tonight. Whether the report will trigger a debate or not I’m unsure.

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Expense claim forms for Councillor Mike Hornby (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Mike Hornby (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

Expense claim forms for Councillor Mike Hornby (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014

                                                

Councillor Mike Hornby is a Conservative Party councillor for Greasby, Frankby & Irby (which sounds like three wards but is actually one). Eleven pages of claim forms were given to me relating to him (which at least shows that unlike some other councillors who aren’t sticking to the rules as some councillors were putting many months of expenses on the same set of forms, he is at least doing these on a monthly basis making them far easier to understand).

The eleven pages of claim forms submitted by Councillor Mike Hornby are below including what looks like some corrections to the original entries that have been corrected.

Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11
Cllr Mike Hornby expenses claim 2013 2014 page 11

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Wirral councillors agree to write off £1,033,550.67 in rent arrears based on secret CBRE report

Wirral councillors agreed to write off £1,033,550.67 in rent arrears based on secret CBRE report

Wirral councillors agree to write off £1,033,550.67 in rent arrears based on secret CBRE report

                      

Cllr Harry Smith tells Wirral Council's Pensions Committee that £1 million is a lot of money to write off

Cllr Harry Smith tells Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee that £1 million is “a lot of money to write off”

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This agenda item starts at 22:57 in the video above.

Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee who manage the Merseyside Pension Fund received a report recommending that they write off £1,033,550.67 in rent arrears. The reasons as to why £1,033,550.67 of rent arrears needed to be written off were in a report of CBRE (the managing agents for the Merseyside Pension Fund’s properties) that councillors agreed to keep secret. Video of what was said about the rent arrears starts here and continues here.

Here is a transcript of that item.

Cllr Pat Glasman (Chair, Pensions Committee): Right, agenda item 11 (property arrears).
Paddy Dowdall (Investment Manager): Thank you Chair, firstly apologies for not being able to spell property and further apologies for the purpose of the report which is to write off the not insignificant £1,033,550.67 in unrecoverable rent arrears from the property portfolio. There’s an exempt appendix as per schedules that are available. The local government act, I can’t comment on parts relating to the exempt appendix.
Cllr Pat Glasman (Chair, Pensions Committee): Errm, do you accept the recommendations subsequent to…
Cllr Harry Smith (Labour, Pensions Committee): I think it’s worth commenting that 5% represents £5 in every hundred, that’s a lot of money to write off, but you know I don’t think it’s unnecessary that we do it, I’ve nothing against the recommendations, £5 in every hundred.
Cllr Pat Glasman (Chair, Pensions Committee): It’s very disappointing.
Cllr Mike Hornby (Conservative, Pensions Committee): I think Chair that CBRE should be made aware of the concerns expressed by this committee.
Cllr Pat Glasman (Chair, Pensions Committee): Could you make sure that that is minuted? OK.
Cllr John Fulham (Labour (representing St. Helens Council), Pensions Committee): I’m going to discuss it in exempt, is that alright?
Cllr Pat Glasman (Chair, Pensions Committee): We are.

Those on the Pension Committee decided later in the meeting to exclude the press and public for discussion of the CBRE report into property arrears on grounds of commercial confidentiality.

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