The Plaid Cymru group on Caerphilly County Borough Council will seek to reverse the decision to give top officers’ pay rises of up to 30%.
Under the authority’s constitution, decisions cannot be rescinded for six months unless more than half the council – 37 members – support a move.
Members of the Plaid group meeting last night agreed to table a motion and urged Labour councillors to back the move.
There are 20 Plaid councillors and three Independent so at least 14 members of the ruling Labour group will also need to sign the motion.
Councillor Colin Mann, leader of the Plaid group, said: “We know that many Labour councillors are as disgusted as ourselves, council employees and the public over these ridiculous rises. We all feel hood-winked and, therefore, I appeal to Labour councillors to put party politics aside and support this motion for the good of the council’s reputation.
“I hope now that commonsense will prevail and these increases will be reversed.
“If Labour councillors are not prepared to stand up against this ludicrous decision then we will find another way of calling an extraordinary meeting of the council.”
Yesterday council staff used their lunch break to stage a protest at the pay rises and voice their anger over the decision.
Local authority chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan was one of 20 senior bosses awarded pay increases at a secret meeting of five councillors in September. His salary is now believed to be around £158,000, a £35,000 increase on previously published figures. A chief officer once on £71,000 now appears, under the new pay structure, to have had an increase to more than £99,000.
Let us hope that politics are put aside for a moment and the requisite number of votes are achieved to consign these unjustifiable rises to the dust bin where they belong. Those senior officers who then wish to leave to seek their fortune, like panto Dick Whittingtons, can do so.
If this motion is signed and supported by Councillor James Fussell, Deputy Leader of the Plaid Cymru group on the Caerphilly council, and the one Plaid Cymru member who was in the gang of five original Councillor who agreed to these hikes in pay, then that is commendable.
I do not understand however, why he did not vote AGAINST it at the secret meeting they held, and which no other Elected members knew anything about?. and then again at the Full Council meeting which ` nodded` it through. Had he publicaly declared his opposition to these moves local democratic processes may have been questioned two or three months ago, and not now after the hike in pay has been implimented,and therefore with less chance of it being made void.
The other four, Labour Members, of the gang of five have not applied the same reasonable apologetic reasoning as Councillor Fussell, so, lets hope they come forward soon with their justification for doing it, they have not done so yet. or will Labour members of the council find themselves joining the Plaid Cymru ranks and voting against their own party?.
This is pure greed,what else have they hushed up? It makes me mad to think how hard our nurses and Drs and Carers work for a wage FAR LESS than this mans wage.it makes me laugh as CCBC are always claiming they don't have enough money for other things ,
He gets FAR to much without this rise.
This all seems like an episode from Boardwalk Empire, but with the Taffia insted of the Mafia.
Trefor, i have enjoyed reading your comments on this disgraceful story. Do you know the names of the 5 councillors who sat on the committee that approved these enormous pay rises? Councillor Fussell has explained his actions but this is only part of this story. Who are the others and will they explain their actions? Could our AMs and MP also make their views known too? If they share the mood of the public then their judgement will be applauded. however, I worry why they are not taking a leading position on this important local issue on behalf of us, their constituents.
I am surprised that the Observer has failed to name these, five, elected representatives, who made this original decision, in their meeting, they are named on line and in the reports of the meeting. Councillor James Fussell had the decency to ` name` himself as being one of the gang of five, so we all know that he was party to the decision. Perhaps the Editor can help us out, I respect the ` privacy` the council has surrounded itself with on this issue, I don`t agree with it, but I feel it would be better for the individuals themselves, or the press, to identify them.
A far more important question which needs to be answered in the entire process is, Who instigated the sitting of this secretive, `Remuneration Panel` to consider a report which supported a perverse ( given everyone else situation) mechanism for ` more money` for the very people who authored the report, was it elected members?, or, one particular elected member? or was it the very officers who were promoting their own incestuous positions in respect to wanting more of the borough`s ratepayers hard earned money for themselves, and.
The public have a right to know who authorised the meeting of this group in the first place?. what we do know it was only convened to consider this one issue, it took 30 minutes for those present to decide to give away £500,000 from the public purse, and this includes all the increased pension pot contributions each of these officers will attract in readiness for their departure from the council, to live in comfortable retirement.
Very good points made by Trefor Bond here, who called this remuneration meeting? Who decided on its size and make up? The voters of this borough would very much like to know. It is instructive that, once this issue blew up in their faces, the councillors agreed that future pay deals for the senior officers must be decided by full council. It is pretty obvious to most people that this is how it should have been done anyway.
We must not forget that the council intended this meeting, and its outcome, to be secret. I am curious as to what other decisions of great import to the inhabitants of the borough are taken by similar secret meetings. A section of the Local Government Act was invoked to deprive the public of the right to observe the discussions about the new library for Caerffili recently. I ask myself, why?
Answer to the above comments – in addition to James Fussell the other four councillors on the remuneration sub-committee were as follows –
Councillor Keith Reynolds, Aberbargoed ward, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet member for Corporate Services (including Finance!); Councillor Gerald Jones, New Tredegar ward, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet member for Housing; Councillor Christine Forehead (Chair of the sub-committee), Cabinet member for Human Resources and Governance, also Business Manager; Councillor David Poole, Cabinet member for Community and Leisure Services.
Info taken from Caerphilly CBC website.