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Hertfordshire plans for their Chief Executive

Hertfordshire are considering the alternative of promoting someone from within but doing away with their job instead of the CEO role.

Other Authorities are taking the opportunity, when their CEO retires, of approaching neighbouring authorities and asking if they can share their CEO. This raises the question of whether that CEO will be able to give sufficient time to both authorities and if not will one or both of the Authorities suffer? The CEO is only as good as his staff so sharing a CEO will probably work in well-run authorities but in authorities that are already struggling this is unlikely to be the answer.


Ms Tapster is currently paid over £200,000 in her role as CEO but the Council are hoping to persuade her replacement to accept the new role but to remain on the same or slightly increased salary. If her replacement is an internal appointment they propose that the position that the replacement comes from will not be replaced and that the newly appointed CEO will remain on the same pay scale as their previous role. This would result in a saving to the council of over £200,000.

In December Councillor David Lloyd said:

“The need to constrain public spending means that the council’s total income is falling while the pressure to spend increases, particularly because of inflation and the cost of meeting the needs of Herts’ aging population……..Taken together, these factors mean that we have to reduce our spending by around £200m a year by 2014-15.”

So what are the alternatives for councils who have to find £200m a year in savings? Well getting rid of highly paid staff and not replacing them or replacing them with someone less expensive is clearly one avenue being explored by Hertfordshire CC and other authorities but a saving of 0.1% leaves £199,800,000 to be found.

Cllr Lloyd has indicated that they are three-quarters of the way towards their target but savings of this scale cannot be made by internal re-organisation alone. Some of us have already noticed these cuts including the turning off of street lights, reduced bus services and funding cuts to various charities.
The outcome of today’s council meeting will be watched carefully by many of us who care about our Council. Nockolds recognise that these are difficult times and cut backs and savings need to be made but the Council must do all they can to ensure this has as little impact on their residents and local businesses as possible.

Ivan Moody  23rd January 2012

 

 

 

Ivan Moody (profile) Ivan Moody Monday 23rd January 2012
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