Southwark council pay

[El Presidente]

According to FOI investigation in Mail today this is the pay of our top council employees

?198,295 E Kelly Chief Executive

?169,906 Dr R Wallis Director of Public Health

?162,489 D Whitfield Strategic Director of Finance and Corporate Services

?155,945 G Scott Strategic Director of Housing and Community Services

?154,171 D Collins Strategic Director of Environment and Leisure

So the person in charge of Environment and Leisure at Southwark Council is paid more than the PM. Hmmm....

[edhistory]

> ?154,171 D Collins Strategic Director of Environment and Leisure

Is this the person responsible for the F.M.Conway contract?

[cella]

Deborah Collins - the invisible woman. She has never responded to any emails sent to her and gives the impression she is detached from her area of responsibility. Worrying, as at this level, she is advising the politicians and presumably cannot have a close grasp of the very real level of complaints coming through to, in my experience, poorly managed call centre staff.

[nxjen]

"According to FOI investigation in Mail today this is the pay of our top councillors"

Think this should read top council officers, councillors only receive expenses.

[bobbsy]

I can't find the article I was reading the other day, but if I remember correctly it stated that on average, across the country, roughly 20% of council tax goes towards funding local council pensions. It's not just the headline salaries that are large, its also the defined benefit schemes in the background.

[Jeremy]

Southwark council is a relatively large organisation, with thousands of employees. 200K is a lot of money, but what do people think an appropriate salary is for chief executive of an organisation of this size?

[El Presidente]

I think ?120k for the CEO is reasonable. ?100k for a director. These salaries are way out of step.

[henryb]

Southwark has a annual turnover of 300m which would put it in the medium-sized business category if you were looking for a private sector comparison. So yes 200k for CEO is a bit toppy looking at industry averages. Plus private sector execs have far more scrutiny on performance which is the bigger problem in my view.

[El Presidente]

Agree Henry. Plus this is public service. Salaries should be lower than the private sector.

[Jeremy]

?120K? A good salary of course, but a decent accountant or programmer (with no mgmt responsibility) can earn that. Not convinced it's CEO money. Especially in London where the lure of the private sector is strong.

[ratty]

Why should private sector salaries be higher? I would prefer it if my public services were run by the best minds and leaders, not the rejects.

[bobbsy]

Ratty, the point you make is valid, but do you see many public services run by the best minds? I don't.

[El Presidente]

ratty Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Why should private sector salaries be higher? I

> would prefer it if my public services were run by

> the best minds and leaders, not the rejects.

Because public service is an end in itself.

[bobbsy]

Also, the rational in the past, was lower than private sector salary, with very good work/life balance and retirement benefits. But this has morphed into very good salary, very good work/life balance, and extremely good retirement benefits that now generally far exceed those of the private sector. With an estimated 20% of council tax going towards finding final salary pensions (and that's expected to increase dramatically as the pension funding liabilities become larger and larger), I'm not happy to be funding this level of remuneration.

[Otta]

This article from a couple of years ago has a list of all the London boroughs and what the Chief Execs were on.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/the-council-chiefs-on-more-than-200000-in-salary-and-perks-8547953.html

And Southwark was far from the worst.

Barking, Stella Manzie - ?179,250

Barnet, Nick Walkley - ?250,818

Bexley, Will Tuckley - ?244,897

Brent, Gareth Daniel - ?231,853

Bromley, Doug Patterson - ?202,295

Camden, Mike Cooke - ?172,463*

Croydon, Jon Rouse - ?221,180

Ealing, Martin Smith - ?176,908

Enfield, Rob Leak - ?226,761

Greenwich, Mary Ney - ?225,510

Hackney, Tim Shields - ?207,083

H&F/K&C, Derek Myers - ?266,991 (but then I guess they can afford it)

Haringey, Kevin Crompton - ?249,452

Harrow, Michael Lockwood - ?227,274

Havering, Cheryl Coppell - ?195,912

Hillingdon, Hugh Dunnachie - ?187,069

Hounslow, Mary Harpley - ?203,026

Islington, Lesley Seary - ?160,000

Kingston, Bruce Mcdonald - ?224,000

Lambeth, Derrick Anderson - ?229,290

Lewisham, Barry Quick - ?144,531*

Merton, Ged Curran - ?211,785

Newham, Kim Bromley-Derry - ?237,315

Redbridge, Roger Hampson - ?231,099

Richmond, Gillian Norton - ?219,444

Southwark, Annie Shepperd - ?170,310

Sutton, Niall Bolger - ?189,777

Tower Hamlets ,Aman Dalvi - ?104,015 **

Waltham, Forest Martin Esom - ?223,473

Wandsworth, Paul Martin - ?254,880

Westminster, Mike More - ?234,407