Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Town Hall, Watford

Contact: Pat Thornton 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence. Councillor Greenslade was absent without apologies

2.

Disclosures of Interest

Minutes:

The Managing Director advised the Panel that, as he was an officer who would benefit if the recommendations were agreed, he would leave the meeting at any stage if the Panel considered it appropriate for him to do so.

 

3.

Minutes

To submit for signature the minutes of the meeting held on 12 March 2012

Minutes:

The minutes of the Chief Officer Pay Panel meeting held on 12th March 2012 were submitted and signed.

 

4.

Exclusion of Press and Public

THE CHAIR TO MOVE: That, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business as it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during consideration of the item there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Section 100(1) of the Act for the reasons stated below in terms of Schedule 12A.

 

NOTE: if approved, the Chair will ask members of the press and public to       leave the meeting at this point.

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

that, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business as it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during consideration of the item there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Section 100(1) of the Act for the reasons stated in the report.

 

5.

Chief Officer Pay

Report of the Managing Director

Paragraph 1 Schedule 12A (contains information about individuals)

Minutes:

The Managing Director introduced the report and set the context.

 

At the Panel meeting on 26 August 2009 pay levels for Heads of Service, Directors and the Managing Director were agreed following a review by the Local Government Association (LGA). Since 2009 the national situation had changed substantially and the Council recognised that these were unprecedented times. There had been well-reported pressure brought to bear on Council finances and the amount received from central government to fund Council activity had reduced substantially. Watford had a good record of responding to the challenges presented, however more had to be done and the next phase would require even more? creative approaches to service redesign and service transformation. To cope with these demands a series of initiatives had already been set up under the ‘Future Council’ programme, including a review of the organisational structure.

 

The review of organisational structure had seen the deletion of the Executive Director posts and sharing of a Director of Finance/Section 151 Officer with Three Rivers District Council.  To support the change programme a new organisational structure, where some of the duties and responsibilities of the Executive Director posts had been delegated to Heads of Service, had been identified and implemented on 1 July 2013. In the light of this re-organisation, a review of remuneration of Heads of Service posts had been undertaken to ensure the Council was paying at the right level in the light of new responsibilities for Heads of Service.

 

The LGA had been approached to consider this change in structure and the implications of delegating some responsibility from Executive Directors to Heads of Service. The LGA confirmed their approach would be to re-evaluate posts under the job evaluation scheme taking into account these changes and then benchmark the posts against similar posts in Local Government for salary purposes. As a result a new pay band had been recommended for non-shared services Heads of Service and this was outlined in the report.

 

The Managing Director said that no cost-of-living national pay award had been agreed for 2013/2014 for chief officers on JNC terms.  The LGA had advised that it was for local authorities to consider an award locally.  His report to the Panel therefore proposed that a 1% cost of living award be added to the new pay bands for Heads of Service as recommended by the LGA review, as well as to the Managing Director’s salary, to maintain parity for Heads of Service and the Managing Director with all other NJC employees.

 

The Managing Director explained how the demand for services had increased and how the Council had had to look at different ways of delivery, including outsourcing.  The Council had also been very ambitious in its future plans, including major projects such as the Health Campus, Charter Place and refurbishment of the top end of the High Street. These factors had resulted in significant changes and increased responsibilities on the Council’s Leadership Team. He added, however, that in the current climate,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

 

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