Agenda and minutes

To authorise the Chairman to sign the Minutes at a later date of the meeting of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee held on 13 July 2020 as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chairman was authorised to sign the Minutes of the meeting of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee held on 13 July 2020, at a later date, as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chairman to ask if any Member present is substituting for another Member and, if so, to declare his/her name as substitute Member and the name of the absent Member.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors G.S. Browne, K.M. Harmer and Mrs S. Hart.

It was noted that Councillor Mrs E.M. Kirby-Green was present as a substitute for G.S. Browne and C.A. Madeley was present as substitute for Councillor K.M. Harmer.

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.  Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The following item includes material which is exempt from publication by virtue of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and it is recommended that the press and public be excluded. The relevant paragraph of Schedule 12A indicating the nature of the exempt information is stated after the item and is reproduced in full at the end of the agenda. In the circumstances of the case, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

RESOLVED: That the press and public be excluded whilst matters containing exempt information, as prescribed by Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended and relating to Minute LG20/14 was under consideration. Appendix D submitted in connection with this item and which contains information exempt from publication by virtue of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act shall remain confidential if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Members received the report of Cabinet which outlined a proposal to establish a single Chief Executive and to delete the two posts of Executive Director (ED). 

Given the current fragility of Council finances following COVID-19, the uncertainties of a potential local government reorganisation and the heavy levels of change and transformation programmes underway, it was proposed to ringfence recruitment to this new post to within the two EDs, who currently undertook Head of Paid Service responsibilities and for the successful candidate to be appointed on a one year contract in the first instance. It was Cabinet’s intention that a report be brought before Full Council in one year’s time to consider whether that appointment be made substantive, or whether, at that stage, the Chief Executive (CE) post should be opened up to external competition and would review the position in the context of the needs of the authority, as well as being better able to judge the prospects for the future of Rother District Council.

All matters pertaining to the restructure were delegated to the Licensing and General Purposes Committee (L&GP) who were also invited to consider matters relating to the salary for the first year and the framework of potential severance terms for the other ED, both for recommendation to Full Council.

A draft Job Description and Person Specification were attached to the report for consideration, together with UNISON’s response to the Cabinet report.

Competitive salaries for strategic CEs of District Councils in the South East were within the range of £110,000 to over £135,000 (not including car allowance or on costs). For an internal appointment, it was recommended to consider the bottom of the range; it was noted that the top of the current ED range was £102,000 and a lift of 10-15% would acknowledge the greater accountability and therefore a salary of around £115,000 for the first year was recommended in the report.

Members were advised that the salary of the new CE of £115,000 with on costs would be to the order of £155,000; the gross saving of deleting the two ED posts and replacing with one CE post would be around £111,000 per annum.

Only one ED had indicated at that stage that he wished to compete for the post, therefore the confidential Appendix D to the report contained the maximum benefits and costs of severance for the other ED only, provision for which would need to be made from the Revenue Reserve.

Cabinet had agreed that iESE (Incremental, Innovation and Inventing Public Services) assist in establishing a Behaviour Framework for the post and for implementation more widely throughout the Council, to progress Performance Management.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were noted from the discussions:

·       Members were concerned about the impact of creating a strategic CE post freed of day-to-day management responsibilities, particularly during the current pandemic, on Council staff and services;

·       the new CE would be responsible for any further staff reorganisation;

·       Members raised concerns about  ...  view the full minutes text for item LG20/14.