Is Wrexham Council ready to appoint a new chief executive?

300 days after Wrexham Council’s former chief executive announced she was leaving, councillors are set to learn this week learn if a new person is ready for the role.

The detail will be revealed in private to councillors at a meeting scheduled for later today, however due to the nature of the ‘Mayor Making’ ceremony the actual agenda item will only be reached 24 hours later.

Today’s meeting will be reconvened tomorrow afternoon where it is likely that the councillors will agree to the recommendation to boot out the press and public to consider the report of the Chair of the Appointments Committee.

The report is not public, but could contain various options for councillors to decide upon including putting forward a name for the job, or explaining why no appointment is ready to be made.

The well remunerated position has a guide salary range of £111,191 – £127,513 , plus ‘election fees’ for the Returning Officer role that is also undertaken.

Back in July last year the former Chief Executive Dr Helen Paterson ‘did a Keates‘ and announced she was moving to Walsall triggering the search for a replacement, and subsequently a debate over the cost of the process.

The recruitment process that appeared to be running smoothly hit the buffers in December when an appointment failed, through no fault of Wrexham Council.

In January it was confirmed that a re-run was taking place, and the job would be therefore re-advertised ‘nationally’.

Since then the Appointments Committee have been holding private meetings in, with one being reconvened, and now their deliberations could be formally shared to the wider council. The last meeting had two items on the agenda, to agree minutes, and one to debate ‘Recruitment Process’ and the other to debate ‘Appointments Process‘ so it is possible the process is due to change.

Top pic: Wrexham.com will be eagerly looking up at the chimney after being booted out of the public gallery to see if a decision has been made. Tradition has it that agendas are burnt and the colour of the smoke indicates if there is a new Chief Exec. There has been no update on how the process will work in the new ‘iPad’ era, with a mundane tweet being one outcome.