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High salaries, high demands
THERE is merit in the adage that if you
pay peanuts you get monkeys.
And, in the case of council chiefs, they
are certainly not being paid peanuts.
Figures released under the Freedom of
Information Act have revealed that council
chief executives are being paid up to
£174,000 - nearly three times the salary of
an MP - with many being awarded inflation-
busting pay rises.
Many will be shocked by those kind of
figures at a time of inflation-busting council
tax increases around the country.
But running a local authority is a huge
responsibility. Councils are major employers,
spending enormous sums of public
money, and that demands that the best
candidates are recruited for the top jobs.
In attracting managers of the right calibre,
the public sector has to compete with
the private sector and sky-high salaries
are the result of those market forces. That
is the real world.
But what it also means is that the public
has every right to know how much
council chiefs are being paid, to question
the levels of remuneration and to demand
performances which justify the rewards.
The appointment of a new chief executive
for the forthcoming super-sized unitary
authority for County Durham will be
very interesting indeed - as will the salary
on offer for that role.
Council chiefs are doing very nicely. We
expect them to prove they are worth it by
driving their organisations forward so
that quality of life improvements are delivered
to those paying their wages.
9:01am Friday 28th March 2008
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CommentPosted by: E. Clark, D/ton on 6:37pm Fri 4 Apr 08
DBC exec's set there own salary scales.they should be set by anindependent body & capped by the Home Office.How can they possibly claim salaries in excess of ministers who have responsibility for budgets of billions compared with localbudgets of millions.
DBC exec's set there own salary scales.they should be set by anindependent body & capped by the Home Office.How can they possibly claim salaries in excess of ministers who have responsibility for budgets of billions compared with localbudgets of millions.
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