Minutes:
(With the exception of the Assistant Chief Executive/Head of Human Resources and the Senior Democratic Services Officer, all other officers left the meeting whilst this item was under discussion.)
The Assistant Chief Executive/Head of Human Resources submitted for the Committees’ consideration a report in relation to the appointment of the new Chief Executive for the new Council and the hand-over period and release date for the current Chief Executive. That portion of the report as far as it related to the early release date is set out hereunder:
“2.2 Hand-over Period and early release date for current Chief Executive
2.2.1 The current Chief Executive has indicated that he is happy to be flexible on his early release date to suit the needs of the organisation.
2.2.3 Members have already agreed at SP&R on 22 November 2013 that Belfast City Council is in a significantly different position to all the other councils who are merging with at least one other council while Belfast is merely extending its boundaries to take in parts of the current Lisburn and Castlereagh Council areas.
2.2.4 Members agreed that the appointment of another Chief Executive, running alongside the existing Chief Executive up until March 2015, has real potential to cause confusion and disrupt the management of the organisation at a time of significant change and considered options on this matter at its meeting in September 2013.
2.2.5 Given the ‘one off’ circumstances in Belfast City Council where we will have two Chief Executives in post in one organisation a flexible approach is required to reduce the overlap period of two Chief Executives being in post at the same time and thus alleviating confusion or organisational disruption in the run up to the new Council coming into place. It was therefore agreed by Committee in November 2013 that this should operate as follows:
· Members agree with the current Chief Executive a release date before 31 March 2015 (the release date would be dependent on the start date of the newly appointed Chief Executive and an effective hand-over period) and make early payment of his pension along with redundancy entitlements as set out in The RPA Scheme, which has been recommended for adoption in councils by the LGRJF.
· Given the Chief Executive has the right to stay in post until 31 March 2015 this date would be used for the calculation of payments under that scheme and remuneration purposes.
· The Council is essentially required to remunerate the existing Chief Executive to 31 March 2015 (and then make pension and redundancy entitlements payments as set out in The RPA Scheme)
· The Chief Executive should be compensated for the personal financial detriment that he would incur every month if he were to retire early in advance of his statutory right to remain until 31 March 2015 i.e. £5,370 gross per month (the difference between his current salary and his future pension; the early release arrangement for the current Chief Executive which would reduce the overlap period of two Chief Executives being in post at the same time would achieve savings for the Council of approximately £9,129 per month.
2.2.6 The current Chief Executive and the Chief Executive of the new Belfast District Council have formally discussed the priority factors around an effective hand-over period and following consideration of all relevant issues it is proposed that the current Chief Executive’s last day in the role will be 30 June 2014, with his contractual end date being 1 September given his accrued annual leave entitlement.
3.0 Resource Implications
3.1 Human Resources
The suggested flexible approach is required to reduce the overlap period of two Chief Executives being in post at the same time and thus alleviating confusion or organisational disruption in the run up to the new Council coming into place.
3.2 Financial
The financial implications in this report were previously agreed by the SP&R Committee on 22 November 2013 and are reiterated in the body of this report.
4.0 Equality and Good Relations Implications
4.1 None
5.0 Recommendations
Members are asked to:
5.1 Review the recruitment and selection process which appointed Suzanne Wylie to the post of Chief Executive of the new Belfast Council (and Ronan Cregan as a reserve candidate for one year) with effect from 1 April 2014; and
5.2 Agree the early release of the current Chief Executive, Peter McNaney, from the Council with effect from 1 September 2014 (given accrued annual leave entitlement) with his last working day in the role being 30 June 2014.”
The Committee adopted the recommendations and agreed to the early release of the current Chief Executive to reduce the overlap period of two Chief Executives being in post at the same time and thus alleviating confusion or organisational disruption in the run up to the new Council coming into place. Members agreed the Chief Executive’s contractual end date would be 1st September, 2014 (given his accrued annual leave entitlement) and that the Council would make up the difference between his current salary and his future pension from 1st September, 2014 to 31st March, 2015 (this being the date to which he has a statutory right to remain in post) which would achieve savings for the Council of just over £9,000 per month giving approximate total savings of £63,000.
Supporting documents: