Top secret meeting tonight will consider retirement package for unknown council officer (From Wirral Globe)
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Top secret meeting tonight will consider retirement package for unknown council officer
2:55pm Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in News By Leigh Marles
Top secret meeting tonight will consider retirement package for unknown council officer
A MYSTERY meeting is being held at Wallasey town hall tonight where group leaders and other senior politicians have been summoned to attend a “special” hearing of the appointments committee.
The subject of the meeting is so secret not even the smallest detail about its purpose is revealed on the committee’s agenda papers, which - very unusually - are blank apart from a note saying the information is "exempt."
However the Globe has discovered councillors and chief officers will be asked to consider an Early Voluntary Retirement request – but from whom the request has been made is also top secret.
We have exhausted every avenue in our search for the relevant information to tell our readers, but we have been blanked at every turn.
However one trusted source said: “No one will tell you anything about tonight as they're sworn to secrecy. But if it’s anything like last week’s meeting when a similar retirement request was made by a very senior officer, all the councillors attending will have to hand back the papers before they leave and an officer will shred them there and then to make sure there are no leaks to the Globe.”
It is not known whether the meeting relates in any way to the suspension of council officers who have been under investigation since the audit commission published a damning report into the way the authority handled its outsourced highway maintenance contract with the Colas construction group.
Comments(30)
remember the past preserve the future
says...
3:10pm Wed 3 Oct 12
johnbrace
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3:38pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Well, Globe after the fuss kicked up in the press over Jim Wilkie's early retirement, do you blame them?
WirralAl
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3:46pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Could it be all the senior officer?
The council is so secret about what they manage to get so wrong!
Its just another Scooby Doo moment and they would get away with it if it wasn't for the pesky Wirral Globe and the many bloggers.
Cheesy Peas
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4:04pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Tautology
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4:10pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Does MI6 know about this? Has Wirral Council been infiltrated by North Korean Politicians?
When I receive my next Pie Chart showing how my council tax is spent, will it show the slice that goes to failed and corrupt Council Officers/Members?
Appears the 'New Broom" is starting to lose its bristles!
johnbrace
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4:34pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Cheesy Peas wrote:Cheesy Peas, now you're putting words in my mouth, tonight I'll be at my local Area Forum.
So John Brace would prefer the council to conduct this all in secret - shredding documents along the way?
Of course I'd like Wirral Council to conduct its affairs in an open, transparent and accountable to the public way.
However as the son of a public sector worker who took early retirement and as a result was paid a pension administered by Wirral Council, I should perhaps point out that somewhat tenuous conflict of interest that somewhat colours my own personal views on the subject.
MX
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4:47pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Your father may have "took" early retirement but I'm not convinced the same process is at play here.
This is something completely different - this is "EVR" is the same vein as the slew of "EVRs" that require special meetings behind closed doors that started in 2007 and have continued at regular intervals and at great expense ever since.
bigfoot
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4:48pm Wed 3 Oct 12
johnbrace wrote:Rubbish! We the council taxpayers and electorate have a right to know what they are doing with OUR money, before not after the event.
"We have exhausted every avenue in our search for the relevant information to tell our readers, but we have been blanked at every turn."
Well, Globe after the fuss kicked up in the press over Jim Wilkie's early retirement, do you blame them?
Its the secrecy that got them into this do-do in the first place.
Maybe some of our golfing friends will tell us or Wirral Leaks!
johnbrace
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4:55pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Actually no, the way the laws work in this country, if a senior officer in Wirral Council's law department doesn't want it published to the public and the councillors meekly go along with the recommendation at the meeting itself, there is little that can be done to reveal what they don't want to reveal until after the decision is made. OK, if you have time and money you could request a judicial review, or take a Freedom of Information request for the report all the way to the Information Commissioners Officer, but both those courses of action would take months or years and neither are certain.
JADEE1
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7:47pm Wed 3 Oct 12
dave301bounty
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8:33pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Positive thinker
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10:32pm Wed 3 Oct 12
LocaLGovwatcher
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10:41pm Wed 3 Oct 12
Hon
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5:48am Thu 4 Oct 12
spamfiend
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7:53am Thu 4 Oct 12
Positive thinker wrote:The way things are going at the moment, I think it is more akin to Inspector Clouseau than Morse!
Who is it? Inspector Morse
Ben Beaconsfield
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9:13am Thu 4 Oct 12
Ann McLachlan and Lesley Rennie, all members of the Appointments Committee and all indicating that they will be attending this meeting tonight.
Under no circumstances whatsoever should an Early Voluntary Retirement request be granted to any senior officer either under current suspension or even under potential investigation.
Furthermore, no promise of immunity from possible future prosecution should ever be made part of an EVA.
Accountability is the key word here. Failure to make miscreant officials liable for their wrong-doings should no longer be tolerated, for no other reason than to do so would bring suspicion to bear on the councillors granting any EVA and justify speculation as to what it is they may have to hide themselves.
When we hear politicians talk of 'drawing a line in the sand' or of a 'fresh start' we can be sure there is something lurking in the woodshed.
And to John Brace: your use of the word 'tenuous' in the context of you ducking the issue is in itself tenuous.
Ben Beaconsfield
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9:15am Thu 4 Oct 12
Wirral_Man
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9:17am Thu 4 Oct 12
"Appears the 'New Broom" is starting to lose its bristles!"
Of course it has we've got the Labour party back in with a comfortable majotiy an no election next year. Why do they need to push that hard!
JADEE1
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1:28pm Thu 4 Oct 12
JADEE1
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2:14pm Thu 4 Oct 12
JADEE1
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2:20pm Thu 4 Oct 12
Wirral_Man
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8:29am Fri 5 Oct 12
JADEE1
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1:06pm Fri 5 Oct 12
dave301bounty
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8:42pm Fri 5 Oct 12
JADEE1
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12:55pm Sat 6 Oct 12
Hugo1008
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10:14am Mon 8 Oct 12
Remember when you see or hear about some found out useless council employee, walking away with an obscene amount of Pension, Golden Handshake, Enhanced Pension running into many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The person who sactioned that is non other than your local councillor, despite what him or her will tell you (off the record).
You need to ask yourself if you were sacked or made redundant wouldf you get the same treatment, no chance, you will not even get the support of your local councillor.
So why do they do it for the most highly paid Council Employees, there is no law says they should.
Ben Beaconsfield
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8:39am Tue 9 Oct 12
No councillor can say "It's nothing to do with me" in a manner in which s/he implies they are really against this kind of thing but powerless to do anything.
Wirral's 66 councillors are there to determine policy and to hold officers to account as they deliver such policy.
And we, the ordinary voters, are here to hold our councillors to account if they fail in this duty.
It is said that a fish rots from the head first. If that's the case, God help the ordinary resident of Wirral as the stench permeates downwards from Wallasey Town Hall to the rest of us.
Positive thinker
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6:46pm Tue 9 Oct 12
kevin casey
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12:16pm Wed 10 Oct 12
Cheesy Peas says...
3:10pm Wed 3 Oct 12