We had one of those rare outbreaks of co-operation between the Lutfur Rahman Independents and Labour at the full council meeting last night when the 2012/3 budget went through first time but only after a series of Labour amendments were accepted by the Mayor.
I’ll blog more about that later but there was one incident worth mentioning here now: an attempt by the Independents to cut the allowance for leader of the second largest political group – who just happens to be the borough’s best muck-finder, Tory Peter Golds. The way this seemed to come about was actually pretty pathetic.
After Peter had raised issues of probity within the council chamber and dared to criticise a highly paid officer for not standing up to the Nolan principles of transparency, he was targeted by Lutfur’s cabinet. While this rowing was taking place, Lutfur’s mayoral advisers in the public gallery were getting rather excited…you know, in the way that political anoraks do in such a bubble. So much so, that the meeting stopped for a couple of seconds when there was a loud thud: Lutfur’s chief of staff Murziline Parchment had actually tripped up as she ran to confer with the cabinet member for finance Cllr Alibor Choudhury.
A bit later, Alibor tried to introduce an “emergency amendment”. What could it be? Lutfur’s £8.39 an hour boundary review adviser Axel Landin broke into giggles and whispered knowingly to a colleague: “This is going to be brilliant.”
Well, what Alibor, who must have spent months poring over documents to come up with a £1bn budget, was proposing was to use half an hour of the council meeting to debate a £5,000 saving. He wanted to halve Peter’s extra allowance from £10,000 to about £5,000.
Petty and pathetic. And Labour sided with the Tories to boot it out.
The reason I mention this here is because if they were genuinely concerned about saving money they wouldn’t be about to waste far more of our cash on the council’s most lucrative position.
When former chief executive Kevan Collins resigned last year, Aman Dalvi stepped into his shoes as the interim boss. I raised some concerns about his track record, but from what I’ve heard, he’s been doing a good job. But will he last?
Almost completely unknown to people at large, the council has been advertising for a new permanent chief executive on its website here. You have four days left to apply if you fancy the job. But you’ll have to persuade the council’s recruitment consultants, Penna, to get past the first hurdle. Here is the job as advertised on Penna’s website:
People, Place, Pride, Performance…
Chief Executive
Attractive salary
3 year fixed-term contract…just four of the many attractions of being chief executive in Tower Hamlets, the high-performing urban borough with astonishing diversity, challenges, ideas and energy. It is a borough where local decisions – on housing, regeneration, jobs, education and the environment – resonate across the national political landscape.
It presents a truly unique opportunity for an experienced chief executive with the character, resilience and drive to deliver on uncompromising and ambitious priorities.
For further information and a confidential discussion please contact our retained consultants at Penna: Julie Towers on 07764 791 736 (julie.towers@penna.com) or Jonathan Swain on 07500 961 727 (jonathan.swain@penna.com).
To apply please send a comprehensive CV including referees and salary expectations along with a detailed covering letter setting out how you meet the specification and what experience you can bring to this role.
Closing date: 27th February 2012.
The job description and person specification are here and here.
You’ll notice that it doesn’t specify the salary range. But because I was interested in maybe applying for it myself, of course, I rang Penna this morning…the salary range is between £165,000 and £194,000 a year, including London weighting and travel allowance.
I asked why it was only a three-year contract and they said: “Because it needs to fit in with the mayoral cycle. The next elections are in 2015 and it might be that the Mayor or any new Mayor might want to review things. It will give them an opportunity to rethink. There is a chance to roll the contract on.”
Now, recruitment consultants are normally paid a commission of about 30 per cent of the salary for the position they’re filling, so that works out at some £60,000 down the drain for what could be a temporary position. I suspect that Penna will even get this cash if Aman Dalvi is appointed, which would be absurd.
Perhaps Alibor and the rest of Lutfur’s shipped-in advisers should start looking at the bigger picture before playing playground politics over £5,000.
Trial by Jeory 
re. Councillor Golds allowance: What a complete waste of the Council’s time! The juveniles who appear be advising Rahman really ought to go and get themselves some real world experience beyond the playground petty politics which they seem to love to dabble in.
re. The Chief Executive: The advertisement of the job is very interesting.
I’ve been looking for adverts online for this post and I can’t find any.
I checked Local Government Chronicle http://www.lgcplus.com/ – which is the standard journal most local authorities use if they aren’t going for major adverts in the broadsheets (eg The Guardian) – and there is no record of an advertisement.
I also checked the Guardian – which has a very large public sector appointments section – and there is no record of the job being advertised in their database. This is the link to all jobs for Senior Executives in Government jobs with a salary over £100,000 and based in London http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/jobs/government-and-politics/senior-executive/uk/england/greater-london/over-100-000/
Perhaps you could ask the Council’s Monitoring Officer whether she is satisfied that the Council has complied in full with the requirements of the Council’s Procurement Code and its Equal Opportunities Policy
and
1) Where adverts were placed for the last Chief Executive appointment?
2) Where adverts have been placed for the current contract?
The three year contract isn’t an issue – apart from the fact that it instantly politicises the appointment. The implication is that the postholder will be working for the Mayor rather than the people of Tower Hamlets.
The method of advertising used for appointing officers of this seniority to the Council most definitely is of interest to the residents and the electorate of this Borough.
Particularly given Tower Hamlets Council’s extremely expensive track record on appointing and losing Chief Executives. No other Borough in London has had as many Chief Executives as Tower Hamlets has had in the last 30 years.
I’m very much of the opinion that it will also interest Eric Pickles
I’s also suggest the Council’s Appointments Panel questions Penna very carefully about the extent and range of their search to find a suitable new Chief Executive.
I’m told that the executive decided to make a 5 per cent cut to the CEO salary range. Five per cent! They know how to look after themselves, don’t they.
And the ad was planned to be placed in the Municipal Journal.
So how much should a chief executive of a London local authority be paid? (inclusive of travel and London weighting).
In all the widespread debates about local authority chief executives and attempts to suggest that they’re overpaid nobody every comes up with a figure.
So if a 5% cut is not enough how much would you bring the salary level down to?
Well, for a starter, why should they get travel and a London weighting? You can’t argue both that we need to pay commercial rates to attract top talent and also pay them archaic local government/civil service perks. So that’s about £8k you could shave off the lower threshold of £165k in this case.
I’d love to see the research out there on this, particularly how these salaries soared in the past decade. However, I’d be amazed if you didn’t have takers for such a high profile, CV boosting job at £140k-£150k.
I’d also like to see a requirement that they actually live in the borough.
I think we all know the “search” for a new CEO is just for show… I strongly suspect that ‘they’ have already decided who will get the job…
Hence my comment about Equal Opportunities and the Procurement Code
“going through the motions” is not allowed – because you are then neither testing the market for a fixed term contract or ensuring you pick the best candidate for the job
IMO the Mayor is leaving himself wide open to accusations that it was a stitch up. It’s not unheard of for other potential candidates to then take legal action.
The point is that the Mayor and all the Councillors on the Appointments Panel have to demonstrate that Council decision-making reflects the seven principles of public life and key decisions are robust, rational and acceptable. Otherwise personal liability may come into play.
Let’s not forget the former ACEO – who was assumed to be being groomed for the CEO role and was appointed to the ACEO role against the advice of the headhunters. He was then caught out doing another job on Council time – and had to ‘disappear’
Let’s not forget that we had a more than adequate CEO when Rahman became Leader – who got paid off to move on – to become CEO of LB Ealing within a few months.
Rahman is costing this Council – and its council tax payers – an awful lot of money in satisfying his personal tastes and idiosyncrasies.
Is that good value for money?
Of course it could well be the case that the headhunters have already tested the market “in the usual way” (ie approached people and/or asked for recommendations) and found that there aren’t any decent candidates of quality prepared to put themselves forward to work as CEO alongside the Mayor because of his track record and reputation.
That’s what tends to happen when a Council keeps appearing in the newspapers for all the wrong sorts of reasons. Those who remember Lambeth or Hackney before there were changes at the top will know what I mean.
James, with your Spitalfields hat on, could you say what part Aman Dalvi has played in Exemplar’s plan to demolish the London Fruit and Wool Exchange and Barclays Bank buildings, along with the Gun Pub in Spitalfields? Hundreds of residents (and others) do not want these historic buildings demolished and Aman Dalvi must be aware of this opposition.
Also James, are you saying that Aman Dalvi is staying, when you say this ad for a new CEO is just for show?
To Ted and any others – will Aman Dalvi be involved in the decision to demolish, or not, to be taken by the Council in 7 days?
The next mayoral election is in fact due in May 2014.
You’re quite right but that was Penna’s response. I guess the reasoning is that would give any new mayor a year to assess the CEO. Really, it does demonstrate the changed landscape we now live in with this mayoral system: that elected office is incredibly powerful.
‘TowerPower’ (October 2011) said this on Aman Dalvi taking up the Chief Exec role as an interim with Stephen Halsey as “interim Deputy Chief Executive”:
‘Corridors of Power’ also reported that Chris Naylor “briefly held the top seat over the summer holidays”.
Adds one interesting angle for me – would a woman be able to survive as CEO in TH Council?
(As to whether or not she would be offered the job in the first place – my mind says that I have to presume she might stand a chance because the law requires that the offer be made to the most appropriate person regardless of gender. My heart says otherwise)
Well it took a woman – Heather Rabbatts – to sort Lambeth out and stop it being the laughing stock of London Boroughs in the 90s!
I’m sure she wouldn’t stand for any nonsense at Tower Hamlets either. However I gather she’s been a bit busy since she became a Director of the Football Association. One or two people in football have been noticing the impact since her appointment!
All Peter does is just whinge, even paying him £5k is wasting public money. We have not heard anything positive come out of Peter. This entire blog would have been dead had it not been for Mr moaner constantly supply his nonsense.
I’m sure Shelina Akhtar is doing far more to earn her keep. Why no motion to reduce her allowance?
Thanks to his ‘human rights’ I don’t think we’ve heard anything (positive or negative) come out of the Mayor either, at least during council meetings. I’m sure there are several allowances to be cut there…
Let’s not forget the waste of public money on the transport for the inflated ego of the only elected Mayor in London who needs a Mercedes
or the waste of public money on the equally outrageous taxi expenses of the civic Mayor https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/tower-hamlets-speakers-mind-boggling-taxi-claims/
Whoops – just been reading ELA re the budget passed at Council last Wednesday and I see that it…
“include(s) cuts in redevelopment, council promotional advertising, taxis for councillors and staff, back office services and the Olympics ambassador.”
Surprise, surprise – cuts in taxis for councillors and staff! I wonder which councillors and staff have been reading this blog………
Any news on the very expensive Mercedes?
@Ted. I couldn’t respond to your response to me (the system ran out of ‘Reply’ buttons) so here is my response.
Everybody in a senior level job gets London weighting and travel thrown in whether they’re private or public sector. Private sector might not always categorise an element of the pay as ‘London weighting’ (although I’ve seen jobs that do) but they will be paying more for London than for a job elsewhere in the country (I’m thinking of companies which have regional senior staff).
I too would love to see the actual research detailing how much local authority CE salaries have soared – preferable broken down by borough/county council/unitary authority. To take an average risks the figures being skewed by the few individuals who do get paid over the odds. They, of course, usually make regular appearances in Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs and their performance is much more likely to be under the spotlight (or criticised in that column) because so much more should be expected from them if they’re taking stackloads more money.
I also agree that it would be excellent if you could make a new CEO live in the borough. Or, if they had some amazingly wonderful excuse why they couldn’t move or find somewhere here then living in Newham or Hackney might be just about acceptable so that they understand the issues facing East London as a whole.
The role is high-profile and if somebody can pull it off it would certainly boost their CV. However, part of its profile (among those who are in local government) will be the fact that they’d have to work for Lutfur and his cabinet and work against the background of the machinations of Tower Hamlets politics which would put many off. And being responsible for running good quality public services in such a deprived borough as Tower Hamlets gives it a high risk factor. Applicants are going to have to want that challenge and, given that level of responsibility £140-£150k, is not all that high.
But with the overall downsizing of local government with any luck there will be a few who are prepared to try.