Proposed by Councillor Simon Holbrook

Seconded by Councillor  Chris Teggin

(1) Council recognises the public concern being expressed over the level of senior officer pay within the public sector.

(2) Council notes the recent comments from all three political parties:

• Vince Cable has proposed zero growth overall for public sector pay (saving £2.4 billion a year), and a 25 per cent reduction in the total pay bill of staff earning over £100,000.
• George Osborne has promised to freeze the pay of 4 million public sector workers earning more than £18,000 a year to save an estimated £3.2bn a year from 2011.
• The Communities Secretary, John Denham has said, although the Government could not freeze the pay of local authority bosses like it had done for judges and NHS chiefs that the time has come for ruling parties on UK councils to prove that every penny of their spending is justified. "There's precious little evidence that changing your executive actually improves the performance of your local authority... I am setting some pretty clear mood music about the demand for value for money we would expect to see".

(3) The Chief Executive of the Local Government Association, John Ransford, (April 2009) argues high salaries are needed to encourage the most talented people to work in the public sector, but warned town halls that pay deals need to be reasonable. He said "Councils need talented people in top management positions but they have to balance this with the need, in a tight financial situation, for all salaries to be demonstrably reasonable.”

(4) In light of these concerns, Council believes that greater transparency and clarity is needed to ensure that senior officers’ salaries are in proportion to their responsibilities and their level of performance.

(5) Therefore, Council instructs the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management to bring forward proposals for amendments to the Council’s Constitution which would establish, as a responsibility of the Employment and Appointments Committee, powers analogous to that of non executive directors in private companies, specifically:

• Policy on senior officer pay (Chief Officers and Heads of Service), having regard to job evaluation, equal pay and other relevant HR policies of the Council.
• The establishment, maintenance and supervision of a performance framework for Chief Officers and Heads of Service.
• The carrying out (alongside the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council) of Chief Executive appraisals.

AMENDMENT

Proposed by Councillor Phil Davies

Seconded by Councillor Steve Foulkes

Delete final paragraph and insert:

(5) Therefore, Council instructs the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management to investigate best practice in other authorities before bringing forward proposals for amendments to the Council’s Constitution which would review the role and responsibilities of the Employment and Appointments Committee with a view to setting up a clear member route for establishing:

• Policy on senior officer pay (Chief Officers and Heads of Service), having regard to job evaluation, equal pay and other relevant HR policies of the Council
• The establishment, maintenance and supervision of a performance framework for Chief Officers and Heads of Service
• The carrying out (alongside the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council) of Chief Executive appraisals

(6) Council asks that these proposals are referred to both the Cabinet and to the Employment and Appointments Committee before any recommendations are made to Council.

The amendment was accepted as a friendly amendment.

Resolved (unanimously) – That the motion, as now amended, be approved.