A Sign of Things to Come

[steveL]

A PART-TIME council chief's wages of almost £1,000 a day have been described as "totally wrong".

Adam Wilkinson, interim head of paid service for the new North East Combined Authority (NECA), will cost the authority £112,000 for his nine-month contract which requires him to work just three days a week. The cost has been defended by Simon Henig, chair of NECA, who said it was important to get the right man for the job.

Mr Wilkinson has already received two separate redundancy pay-outs from councils in the last seven years.

Mr Wilkinson took voluntary redundancy from his role as Chief Executive of Derby City Council in January 2015. He was given £140,000 compensation and three months pay. Seven years earlier, in 2008, he received £365,000 from Kent County Council where he had been working as director of environment and regeneration. He had been in that position for just a year.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, was also critical of the pay-outs.

"Taxpayers will be astounded that at a time of necessary savings across government, such an extraordinary sum has been plucked out the back of the authority sofa to pay a part-time consultant.

"There are also serious questions to be asked about the size of the golden goodbyes that this individual has received from other councils, only to land on his feet with another lucrative job elsewhere in the country."

But Cllr Henig, Chair of the North East Combined Authority (NECA), said members were very pleased to have Mr Wilkinson on board.

He added: "In order to ensure we have someone of a sufficiently high calibre we have gone through a competitive recruitment process before agreeing to appoint Adam to this interim role."

Cllr Henig said work was ongoing to appoint a permanent joint chief executive covering for NECA and the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

[Land Phil]

Just how many Hartlepool councillors are rubbing their hands together at the thought of being the right man for he job for a 6 figure salary working in County Tees Valley Council ?

[not4me]

Reminds me a bit of when Steve Wallace stood up in council and defended the extra £24,000 'honorarium' payment the Police Authority had decided to pay Sean Price (as well as his kids school fees, an executive car, a bonus payment etc etc). Wallace said at the time that 'we were lucky to have him' - and we all know how that worked out. 

Greed begets Greed

[marky]

They really have this mutual back scratching scam sewn up, haven't they?

[testing times]

That's around £2.20 a minute if anyone's interested. I understand now why he only works 3 days a week - he will need the other two days to spend it.

[steveL]

I think the real point from our point of view is that it gives us an indication of where we are going with the Teesside Combined Authority. No wonder those pushing for it are so keen - there's going to be a lot of money flying around in salaries and allowances.

This is how the NECA is structured and we can expect something very similar on Teesside.

"The North East Leadership Board is the strategic decision-making body of the Combined Authority. It has eight members – the six Council Leaders and the elected Mayor, together with the Chair of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

A significant body within the Combined Authority is the Transport North East Committee.  This is a joint committee of the Combined Authority and seven individual councils that will advise the Combined Authority and oversee the delivery of transport functions across the area.

In addition the Combined Authority also has an Overview and Scrutiny Committee and an Audit and Standards Committee which report direct to the board"

[Paul Thompson]

I think we know what this is all about .....

http://www.northeastca.gov.uk/ita/who-we-are/members/members-allowance

[fred c]

Another reason not to get tied up with Tees Valley Unlimited or any other unelected bunch of Quangotwats...... once they get in we can`t get them out, look no further than Foster & Garvin.

Senior Public Sector salaries have no bearing on the responsibilities that they undertake, we only need to look at the CEO salary band of the councils CEO £142,000 to £150,000, there is no way that kind of money can be justified.