Committee to consider councillor senior salary

Should a senior salary worth over £9,000 be reinstated to the chairwoman of a committee that interviews candidates for the top jobs at Powys County Council, councillors will be asked.

This year members of the Employment and Appeals committee have been busy interviewing candidates for directors and heads of service roles as chief executive Emma Palmer re-jigs her senior management team at the authority.

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A report reviewing whether a senior salary should be paid to the Employment and Appeals committee chairwoman, Conservative Cllr Lucy Roberts will be discussed by members of the Democratic Services committee at their meeting on Monday, September 2.

The issue was raised by the committee back in January.

Head of business intelligence and governance, Catherine James explained that a review of senior salaries had been done by the committee in February 2023.

Back then the councillors had been “advised” that the terms of reference of the Employment committee had been changed in 2022, and that responsibility for dealing with staff appeals had been taken away from it.

The official name of the committee has not been changed yet.

Ms James said: “At that time the chair’s post was paid a remuneration and the committee was asked to review whether this should continue based on the revised workload of the committee.

“The committee noted that the group leaders’ comments were that payment should continue and the committee made this recommendation to council.”

But at a council meeting in March 2023, councillors rejected the recommendation and voted that the senior salary should no longer be paid for the role.

Currently four senior salaries for committee chairmen and chairwomen are paid by the council.

This is £9,333 which is paid on top of the basic councillors salary which is £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.

The report includes information on the number of meetings that the Employment committee has held between May 26, 2022, and August 31, 2024, and compares it to the workload of other committees where the chair is paid a senior salary.

During this 26 month period the Employment committee and its sub-committees met a total of 20 times.

In comparison the Economy Residents and Communities scrutiny held 72 meetings in public and private when the presence of the chairwoman, Liberal Democrat Cllr Angela Davies was needed.

The Health and Care scrutiny there were 42 times public and private meeting needing the involvement of chairwoman Conservative Cllr Amanda Jenner.

The Learning and Skills met 59 in public and private meetings involving committee chairman, Conservative Cllr Gwynfor Thomas.

The Planning, Taxi Licensing and Rights of Way committee has held 28 meetings in public and committee chairmen have been involved in a further 25 briefing meetings with county planners.

The report also says that the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales (IRPW) that sets the salary for councillors have been asked by the council whether one off “ad-hoc” payments can be given to committee chairmen when the role has not been allocated a senior salary.

“A response is awaited,” said Ms James.

A recommendation from the committee on whether to pay a senior salary or not will go in front of a future full council meeting.