Agenda and minutes

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is to consider the report in relation to the Senior Management Arrangements.

The Director of Legal and Governance Services and the Director of Finance submitted a report in respect of senior management arrangements for Council’s consideration. The purpose of the report was for Council to consider whether it wished to change the organisation’s senior management arrangements.

Typically a report on senior management arrangements would be brought by the Chief Executive as the Head of Paid Service. However, in view of the potential for conflicts of interest, both the Elected Mayor and the Chief Executive had agreed that this report would be developed by the Director of Legal and Governance Services and the Director of Finance in their respective statutory roles of Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer.

The Local Government Association had provided information on the content of the report including the alternative models.

The Director of Legal and Governance Services clarified that, if members chose to change the senior staff arrangements, it would automatically trigger the voluntary redundancy of the Chief Executive.

If Members opted to change the senior management arrangements, the two potential operating models included within the report for members to choose from, included the Chief Operating Officer model or the option for an Existing Director within the Council to become the Head of Paid Service, in addition to their existing role. The benefits and risks of each model were set out within the report.

Members were advised that if Council supported a change in senior management arrangements and designated an interim Head of Paid Service, the interim Head of Paid Service would provide a report to Council, no later than three months from their designation (the date of the report), setting out in detail the proposed senior management arrangements, including any constitutional changes required as determined by the Monitoring Officer.

The Council would also be required to designate an interim Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer, as there was a by-election scheduled for 16 December

 2021. Given that the responsibility for elections fell within the remit of Legal and Governance Services, it was proposed that the Director of Legal and Governance Services be designated interim Returning Officer and interim Electoral Registration Officer.

The Director of Finance advised that both internal and external audit had been consulted with regard to the content of the report and their feedback and any financial implications for the Council, had been included within the report.

The Director of Finance advised that there was an error at paragraph 59 of the report. The report stated that the Chief Executive contributed 12.5% of his salary to the Local Government Pension Scheme, however the actual figure was 11.8%.

The Director of Finance advised that where an employee chose to take voluntary redundancy, there was an automatic uplift to their redundancy payment of 25%. The additional cost of £22k, as a result of the uplift would be outweighed by the cost of £53,314, if the Chief Executive was subject to compulsory redundancy.

The Local Government Pension Scheme regulations required that an employee over the required age and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/71