Council Pay Panel Chair: Mischievous and Misleading Cowards Behind Chief Exec Pay Row

Cllr Hugh Jones, the Chair of the Council’s Pay and Reward Panel today made a statement ‘following the misleading and often inaccurate reports that have appeared in the press in relation to salaries of senior officers’.

We reported that the meeting to discuss the pay report was being held in secret (here). We said such a secret meeting is ‘standard’ and ‘as usual’, saying “The restriction on reporting and exclusion of members of the public is standard as it is likely the report will contain references to individuals and their pay.”

In his statement Mr Jones said “I want to deal with the issue of openness and accountability. Each member of this Council should be aware that there is a long standing protocol for dealing with matters relating to pay. Standing Order 14 makes a clear reference to dealing with matters relating to salary. The same order and protocol applies equally to the lowest paid member of staff and the Chief Executive. The principle that the discussions and negotiations surrounding pay and reward are dealt with in private applies not only to local government but to the private sector as well. Public Sector employees are individuals, they are entitled to the same respect as we all are. There is one fundamental difference and that is, the salary paid to senior officers is in the public domain, because it is all of us as taxpayers who are picking up the bill.”

Perverse Rejection & Cowardly Attacks

After outlining the methods used to form the report, he said “It is therefore somewhat perverse having laid down criteria which the panel scrupulously followed, to reject its recommendations, and at full council fail to give any reason for doing so.”

“I said in Council that it is never the right time, but to ignore the consequences would be a failure in our duty to secure the senior salary scales appropriate to the responsibilities of senior staff in Wrexham”

We reported on comments by Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru’s AM for North Wales (here) regarding pay for the Chief Executive. In his comments today Mr Jones said “The attempt to personalise and focus on one individual, the current Chief Executive, is a cowardly act and wholly inappropriate in the context of the report. The failure to mention the fact that scales for the 3 Strategic and Performance Directors were lowered at the starting point is to take the report out of context. One press report inaccurately stated that these scales had been increased.” *

“What is regrettable is that members of this Council have chosen to personalise this issue to the current post holder who was not present at the panel or Council when the decision was made”

“This together with the failure to look at the senior salary structure cost as a whole is both mischievous and misleading. To seek to achieve short term political gain using ill conceived and inaccurate arguments does little or no justice to those involved”

Previously the Leader of Wrexham Independent Group Cllr David Bithell said “We did not support any increases to senior officers’ pay, especially when Wrexham council’s workforce have had a pay freeze for the last three years. It’s not right and morally wrong. People in senior positions should set example to the rest of the workforce and refuse this rise.”

In his statement today Mr Jones directed comments at the Wrexham Independent Group saying “At the final meeting of the Pay and Reward Panel no member voted against the recommendation to the Council, this includes the Wrexham Independent Group member present“.

Councillor Bithel said that the statement was ‘full of inaccuracies which tried to defend the actions of the new administration’ and went on to say “The council does require to review senior officers pay scales and sought advice from Hay, that does not mean that elected councillors have to accept this advice. The pay and reward panel is politically balanced and does not have to accept  these recommendations it is a matter for Full council (made up of 52 councillors)  to decide.”

“Our Group did not accept the recommendations and put the following amendment. The Tax payers have the right to know what there council is doing and voting on. Given that staff have had a pay freeze for 3 years we did not feel this was right in the current climate. I am sure the public will add this all up and put the salt on the chips.”

Mr Bithel also forwarded a copy of minutes to the pay meeting which state:

“The Leader of the Wrexham Independent Group reported that his Group could not support the recommendations contained in the report and wished to place on record that given the difficult economic times they would not support any spinal point increases to senior salaries. ”

No Pay Rise For Chief Exec – Future Raises Possible Though

Regarding the pay of the Chief Executive, he said “It is important to stress that the Chief Executive has not been given a pay rise. At a date in the future, not before 2015, and subject to performance criteria the salary of the Chief Executive post would increase by one increment, similarly in 2016”.

The context of the two possible future pay rises was explained as “less than 0.003% of the council’s total expenditure and 5p per resident per year”.

*We are unable to see the the context of the report, as the report is not public.