The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has decided not to take any action against a Plaid Cymru councillor at the centre of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s pay scandal.
Councillor James Fussell, who is Plaid’s deputy leader on the council, was on a secret committee with four other councillors which agreed the controversial pay increases for 21 senior council bosses.
Cllr Fussell has always maintained that he did not vote in favour of the increases, but this was disputed by the other members of the Senior Remuneration Committee, who were Labour’s Christine Forehead (chair of the committee), Keith Reynolds, Gerald Jones and David Poole.
Ombudsman Peter Tyndall said: “I am not persuaded that the evidence is sufficiently robust to enable any further action to be taken in respect of the matters investigated.”
Cllr Fussell said: “I’ve made my position perfectly clear on my involvement on the Senior Remuneration Committee and I’m pleased that the Ombudsman has found no action needs to be taken.
“I want to thank everyone who has supported me over the past nine months. I will continue to represent the people of St Martin’s ward to the best of my ability.”
The complaint to the Ombudsman was made by Dan Perkins, the council’s Legal Service Manger, who had claimed that Cllr Fussell had voted in favour of the increases.
But Cllr Fussell told the Ombudsman that he did not give an indication one way or the other when a show of hands was asked for at the committee and did not raise his hand.
In his findings, the Ombudsman said: “Whilst a majority of those present at the meeting state that Cllr Fussell raised his hand to indicate a positive vote, I am mindful of the fact that a number of these statements are along party lines.”
Cllr Colin Mann, Plaid group leader said: “I’m pleased that the Ombudsman has decided not to take any action against James Fussell. Plaid has never supported the scandalously high pay rises pushed through by the Labour-run council.”
"Cllr Fussell told the Ombudsman that he did not give an indication one way or the other when a show of hands was asked for at the committee and did not raise his hand".
Cllr James Fussell DID NOT vote against the pay rises meaning Plaid Cymru went along with the whole thing. Hypocrisy or what? You must think we're fools!!
If Plaid were so against the pay rises, why didn't they vote against them?? This was the opportunity to vote against the inflationary rises but their representative chose not to do so. It would seem that Plaid were content to go along with this until the news story broke. What a shambles.
I agree with Terry and Roger.
The most serious aspect of this issue is the breaking of confidentiality by any Councillor who is bound by it, as was this man, If he was prepared to break the rules of confidentiality on this issue how can he be trusted with matters of a similar nature.
And he failed to stop this matter in its tracks by raising serious objections in Committee, and ACTUALLY VOTING AGAINST IT. I would not like such people discussing issues of a personal nature about any citizen, the Ombudsman is wrong to fail to give proper `advise` to this person about his future conduct on such matters.
The Ombudsman has clearly decided that he cannot rely on the evidence of Labour councillors so has quite rightly not to take any on the complaint after considering James Fussell's evidence.
This was a Labour decision (four cabinet members on the sub committee). There are also 50 Labour members on the authority and their action will cost council taxpayers' many millions of pounds – including around £1.5m EXTRA in pay until 2017.
Much as you Labour supporters try to spread the blame – there is only one party to blame and that is the one in control of this councillors. You treat the electors with disdain by trying to blame a minority party for this scandal.
Plaid has made its position on huge rises for 21 top officers – Lindsay Whittle has said it would not have happened under a Plaid adminstration.
well if the ombudsman took no action against cllr hardacre considering his conflict of interests they could hardly put the boot into james fussell.
They couldn't organise a booze up in a brewery!
Now we have confirmation that Cllr Fussell did not object to the pay rise decision when he had the opportunity to do so. So all the protest by Plaid is nothing more than a smokescreen.
There can be absolutely no confidence in Plaid's claim that they would not have done the same had they been in charge. Didn't they increase the pay of the then Deputy Chief Executive by £15,000 just a few years ago?
There's a huge difference between a rise for a single officer in new role than awarding 21 top officers rises if up to 30% per cent for no additional responsibility while freezing pay of ordinary workers. Labour looking after the top dogs while holding back everyone else's pay down.
I find James Fussell seems to be the victim of a witchhunt, by the media, in every rpeort I`ve seen of the meeting, it always mentions James Fussell first, the fac that four Labour Councillors were in the same meeting seems to have been brushed aside. Many people in the town find it odd that the Council`s Legal Services manager only reported Councillor Fussel to the Ombudsman, and are wondering why the Labour councillors werent reported to the Ombudsman. Caerphilly Council seems to be in a mess and, perhaps like Anglesey a few months ago should be put into the hands of Welsh Government appointees to sort them out, the only problem is that the Labour Party also mismanages the Welsh Government. In case I`m accused of bias,while I sometimes vote Plaid I`m not a member, being by nature a social democrat coming from a working class, radical, liberal,even socialist,non conformist bilingual background. Being one of the many in Britain, whom the Labour Party have abandoned on their march to the right.
What a load of hot air…. Does anyone agree huge pay rises was the right thing to do? Who were the only councillors to vote in favour of these immoral pay rises? It wasn't councillor fusell – it was Labour councillors. A shameful act especially when most of us are struggling to make ends meet. Rowing about councillor fusell is missing the point. Please can those who voted for these pay rises explain themselves. I might change my mind about their decision if they had the decency to explain why the council is now so much better than before they spent so much more of our money paying the same people to do the same job
Plaid appear to be out in force defending their man yet nobody has answered about why the rep didn't vote against it. Labour cllr's voted for it but Plaid went along with it. That isn't any better.
Put them all in the stocks outside the castle I say!
If you go to the open meetings where the councillors vote on areas that affect us it is passed or blocked by which party has the most people present and not what benefits the public. Farcical sometimes!
Pass me my tomatoes and let the fun begin! 🙂
I will not be an apologist for someone who fails to abide by confidentiality rules and regulation in their duty as a Councillor.
But, the question is, had Mr Fussell not `blown the Whistle` by confirming the pay hike issues in the first place, (it having been made public by an Independent Councillor of Caerphilly Council), would we have EVER found out about them?, they had, after all, been confirmed by the full council so that was the end of that at the time.
Would Officers of the council responsible not be suspended?.
Would there NOT have been a Police Investigation?.
And, would anyone have bothered at all?.
When people are critical of Councillor Fussell on these issues they should measure his actions against not highlighting the pay hike issue at all, even if he did fail to vote against them at the meeting, and, even if his actions demonstrate scant regard to the confidentiality all Councillors are bound by.
Councillors are elected by us, members of the public, to represent us. Personally, I believe that councillors should NOT sign a NDA. If they are there to represent us then they should be able to inform us of ANYTHING and ALL decisions that are made at council level.
Plaid sought to gain much political advantage by claiming that it was just down to Labour. But now we know that their representative did not object when he had the chance to do so. This means that Plaid's campaign is hollow.
And wasn't it the Labour Group on the Council that were instrumental in reversing the decision and then worked with the Trade Unions? I think it was.
The real issue is that the error made is admitted by ALL. And all Councillors should work together to bring in new rules and procedures rather than jump on a bandwagon.
So Cllr Fussell didn't vote one way or the other on the pay increases. Why would a person who is so opposed to these huge increases CHOOSE NOT TO VOTE? To me this is not the action of a person who is really against the pay increases, as I would have expected anybody who was against such a pay hike to use his vote and vote against them. Also why didn't he vote on such an important issue. Phil you wrote 'Lindsay Whittle has said it would not have happened under a Plaid adminstration', maybe you are correct there as NOTHING was done under the Plaid administration. Maybe the pay increases should have been sorted out when Plaid had control of the council but deliberately chose not to review the pay as they knew it would be such a contentious issue, plus they probably knew they would loose control of the council after the May 2012 elections so passed the buck so to speak.
Jeff you must live in a parallel world. Do you honestly believe that if a Plaid administration had taken such an appalling decision the Labour Party would have sat on their hands and said nothing? The Labour group was only forced to reverse the decision following protests from employees and the trade unions – and apart from cutting the chief executive's increase very little else change. Please don't try to defend the indefensible.
Sally whatever you think of the Plaid adminstration nothing in the history of Caerphilly CBC since 1996 has caused such anger as this decision by a Labour council. Lindsay has made Plaid's position very clear on these increases – they wouldn't have happened. It is up to you whether you accept Lindsay's word or not but I think Lindsay's record of public service speaks for itself.
Phil, I do believe Lindsay Whittle would not have given huge increases, because as I previously stated NOTHING was done about pay reviews when Plaid had the chance. Why was this? Though if under Cllr Whittle there was a committee and he was NOT part of it and the members voted in favour then yes I believe pay increases would have been given. I doubt Cllr Andrews or any other responsible councillor irrespective of the party they represent was in agreement, however, as none of them were part of the committee they could not have a say in the matter.
I can't answer your question about pay reviews. The other four members of the remeneration committee were all Labour Cabinet members. No decision like this could have gone through without the approval of the leader and indeed the cabinet as a whole – that's what happens in politics whether at local or national level.
Since there were four labour Councillors who apparently voted fro the payrise, at a figure chosen by the Officers involved, its immaterial whether Jammes Fussell voted or not, the whole deal seems to be a Labour party old boys stitchup over pay, and then they try to cast the lame on the one Plaid Member. Quite frankly, I was a Chartered Engineer and there is no way I could have achieved the salary of Council Officers, the whole thing stinks, and Senior Officers should have thei pay cut by half. What is even more annoying, when I was young, the clever kids went to University, and many of those who ddint went into Local Government, so isee myself paying the less able several times my salary, and not doing a good job, and not taking the blame or losing their jobs when things go wrong..
By James Fussell apparently abstaining from the vote then this is an indication that he chose not to vote against the pay rises. Would be interesting to find out why he chose to abstain rather than vote against the motion.
Council officers, being public servants, receive higher salaries than if they worked in the private sector yet councillors still saw fit to 'award' them atrocious and now scandalous pay rises. To think, the councillors who made the decision are still in public office and probably making more contentious decisions.
I am with John Owen on this one, senior officer were already being paid far more than the private industry rate of pay, even before the scandalous pay rises.
With reference to Sue's comment,
"By James Fussell apparently abstaining from the vote then this is an indication that he chose not to vote against the pay rises. Would be interesting to find out why he chose to abstain rather than vote against the motion."
The usual reason for abstaining on a simple yes-no vote is no strong feelings on the matter either way. It is different in Parliament where MPs usually are offered the choice of supporting the Government's motion or the Opposition ammendment. Then MPs might abstain because they are against both motion and ammendment. Only Cllr. Fussel can give an answer as to his decision not to vote. Personally I would have refused to take part in a remuneration committee designed to be sub rosa because I do not think this type of decision making is in the public interest.
Thank-you Richard for explaining why, possibly, James Fussell abstained from voting. I guess it can be presumed that he didn't care if council officers were awarded large pay increases.
We need more councillors like yourself Richard, someone with principles who takes the time to read and comment on local issues that obviously strike a chord with many constituents.
To me the surprising thing about this episode is that the Labour party seem to have no shame.At the same timethat the vast majority of the Coincil employees had their wage rises stopped, the Senior officers were told to set their own salary level, it sounds like a old boys deal by the mafia of the mediocre. When I was employed as an Engineer anyone who consistemtly made errors was shown the door. Yet it appears that the Welsh Audit Office are investigating the performance of the Caerphilly County Borough at the same time the senior officers were deamnding huge pay rises. incedentally over the years I“ve noticed that when theres any difficult decisions the Council go out to "Consultants", rather than rely on their ovdr paid Senior Officers.I always thought hat the Labour Party were on the side of the workers, because despite what Johnny come lately, Ed Miliband, thinks the workers, through the trade union movement, founded the Labour Party.And even todaay 60% of us consider ourselves to be working class, but our party has stolen from us by the metropolitan elite, and their running dogs in south Wales. I am sure my Labour Party ancestors would be surprised to see the Labour Party taking the sides of the "Boss Class", for that is what the Senior Officers are in effect, no doubt the Labour Councillors feel more at home with them, than the run of the mill Council employee, on low salaries. But then as I said they must have no shame.
Johnowen, I can understand why you say the "Labour party seem to have no shame." However the remuneration committee only consisted of five councillors and unfortunately none of them voted against the massive pay increases. I don't think it was a true reflection of what the majority of the 73 councillors would do. There are still working class councillors from both parties and independents that make up the council. I agree with Sally when she said she doubts "any other responsible councillor irrespective of the party they represent was in agreement."
It appears that the Welsh Audit Office expressed concern about the Council`s governance and decision making arrangeemnts back in March, if the Council were a private company, the people involved would be given a warning over their performance, and, or, sacked. it appears that only in Local government that failure is rewarded. Again I must express surprise at the level of remuneration that senior officers expect, after all, Caerphilly is one of the poorest boroughs in Wales, if not Britain, the proverbial one horse town. Perhaps there truth in the old song "The working class can kiss my xxxx, I`ve got a Council Senior Officer`s job at last" I feel sorry for the ordinary employee of the Council.
Louise- The entire Council, not just five members of it, voted through these increases, they did this at a full council meeting at which the report from the gang of five was presented.
To say that only five Councillors were responsible is incorrect.
Most of the entire Council have stated that they did`nt know what they were voting in support of, or what they were voting for, now that is the biggest scandal, i.e. Councillors nodding through this and that, on the recommendation of senior officers, and not knowing what they are doing!!!!!.
That doesnt surpise me at all, about 20 years ago the then Rhymney Valley Council commisioned consultants to redevelop the centre of Caerphilly, like building multi storey carparks in the David William Park. It was only as a result of massive public protest that involved petioning councillors, public meetings and attnding council meetings as observers we got it stopped, the general respose of the councillors was that when they knew what the plans involved, they were against them.But we were told normally the councillors did what the officers told them. An episode that opened my eyes to the farce of local government, a system where rather than the councillors, who we elect, tell the officers, whose salaries we pay, what to do, the officers tell the councillors how to vote. I see it as a major problem, because the councillors, with all the will in the world have not had management training, yet with the Cabinet system, people with little, or no experience, are given job titles with roles that they cant perform.Of course there is a theory that these days the "best" people dont go into politics, but I couldnt possibly comment.
Spot on again John, I remember the situation you describe vividly. If you have time attend the Town Council meeting on Monday 16th September and look at a couple of issues that are presented, in all seriousness, for discussion. I know that you as someone who has worked in industry and had to pay due diligence to the law and legal contracts would look upon them in the same manner as I do; utter disbelief.
The problem of lack of experience and knowledge goes right to the top of government. I used to respect certain Westminster cabinet members, regardless of politics, as they displayed impressive intellectual powers. Tony Benn, Michael Foot, Enoch Powell, Ken Clarke come to mind as people who could understand the explanations given by Whitehall staff but use their intelligence to arrive at a conclusion. These days civil servants, whether the 1st division of Whitehall or the lesser mortals of Ystrad Fawr, appear to posses plenary powers in areas that elected representatives should hold sway.