Councillors delay decision on senior salary to see if IRPW will allow one off payments to committee chairmen
A one- off special meeting will be held to decide whether a councillor will receive a special salary for chairing meetings of Powys County Council’s Employment and Appeals committee.
At a meeting of the council’s Democratic Services committee on Monday, September 2, councillors discussed whether a senior salary worth over £9,000 for chairing the Employment committee should be reinstated.
In 2022 the remit of the Employment committee was changed and that responsibility for dealing with staff appeals had been taken away from it.
At the time the chairman was paid a senior salary, and it was recommended to council that this should be kept, but in March 2023 councillors voted to get rid of it.
Earlier this year the Democratic Services committee asked for a review of paying a senior salary for the role to be done.
This was partly due to a workload placed on the committee chaired by Conservative Cllr Lucy Roberts as they interviewed people for senior staff roles at the council as chief executive Emma Palmer re-jigged her leadership team.
The number of meetings held by the Employment committee when compared to scrutiny and Planning committee meetings show that the workload is much less.
Head of business intelligence and governance Catherine James said: “The Independent Renumeration Panel Wales have been asked whether ad hoc payments can be made to chairs for work where they do not receive senior salaries.”
“We have had a response back, they are holding a meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, September 3) and are going to discuss this topic.
“They will let us know what the outcome of that discussion is.”
Conservative Councillor Pete Lewington said: “We need that information before we consider this any further.”
“There should be something paid to the chair, but it needs to reflect the workload.”
Liberal Democrat, Councillor Claire Hill said: “A wholesale change of the senior leadership team is a one off special thing you would hope.”
Cllr Hill added that if the IRPW agreed to ad hoc payments she would more “more inclined” for that to happen due to the “unexpected” number of meetings appointing senior staff, but did not believe it should be a salaried role.
Committee chairman, Powys Independents Cuouncillor Graham Breeze proposed deferring a decision until after the council had received word from the IRPW.
This was agreed and then head of legal and monitoring officer, Clive Pinney asked whether the committee would decide the issue at a one off meeting or wait until their next meeting in November.
Cllr Lewington said: “It would be good to do a one off, and show we’re cracking on with things.”
Cllr Hill said: “Organising an early meeting just for that one item is costing taxpayers money, I question why it can’t wait until November.”
A vote was held, and three councillors voted for the one off meeting with two against.
Currently four senior salaries for committee chairmen are paid by the council.
This is £9,333 which is paid on top of the basic councillors salary of £18,666 a year.
Under the rules the council would be allowed to allocate one more senior salary if they should wish to do so.
