Sheffield City Council meeting - An important Invitation

[cuttsie]

Councillor allowances and expenses are a matter of public record. If you really wanted to know what they were, you would already have found out. It doesn't take two minutes.

 

Quite frankly, your shallow bleating about trips to the South of France and suntans is indicative of your rather simplistic interpretation of a difficult problem.

 

The council is making cuts because their funding has been slashed. Funding has been slashed because the tax take is down. The tax take is down because...

 

Join the dots yourself.

Perhaps you can tell us what benefit our City gained after the last trip to Cannes by our public servants;)

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2015 at 19:33 ----------

 

So, Julie Dore on £32,000 then. Anyone think she's worth it?

 

It's also a bit like saying MPs are on £78,000. Nobody believes anything they say any more.

 

And I believe the Sheffield Chief exec is on about £250,000, but then he's not on the council, anybody know what he does or exactly how the work is divided up? No, me neither. And what about groups like Yorkshire forward and those other 'promotional' bodies; who pays them and what for?

 

Does anybody have a much needed overview?

He organises trips to the South of France Anna.

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2015 at 19:40 ----------

 

How much should someone who oversees a £400 and odd million council get paid?

Not thirty times more than a home help or office cleaner.unless of course he is doing a good job.

[hauxwell]

This is where all our money goes. Why should the Chief Executive get £80000 more than the Prime Minister?

 

JOHN MOTHERSOLE

Chief Executive £216,000

 

JEREMY WIGHT

Director of Public Health £98,453

 

SHARON SQUIRES

Director Sheffield First Partnership £81,645

 

JAMES HENDERSON

Director of Policy & Performance £81,645

 

JAYNE LUDLAM

Executive Director of CYPF £141,516

 

LARAINE MANLEY

Executive Director of Communities £141,516

 

WILLIAM GREEN

Executive Director of Place £141,516

 

EUGENE WALKER

Executive Director of Resources £141,516

 

SUSAN HIRD

Consultant in Public Health £81,618

 

CHRISTOPHER SHAW

Director of Health Improvement £76,922

 

LOUISE BREWINS

Head of Public Health Intelligence £67,805

 

E. COATES-MADDEN

Head of Communications £58,225

 

MARK TUCKETT

Head of Policy & Improvement £58,225

 

DORNE COLLINSON

Director of Children & Families £99,154

 

JOHN DOYLE

Director of Business Strategy £81,645

 

ANTHONY TWEEDY

Director Lifelong Learning(Skills & Com) £76,922

 

ANTONY HUGHES

Children's Commissioner for Sheffield £76,922

 

MOIRA WILSON

Director of Care & Support £81,645

 

LAURA PATTMAN

Director of Business Strategy £81,645

 

JANET SHARPE

Director of Housing Services £81,645

 

JOE FOWLER

Director of Commissioning £81,645

 

DAWN SHAW

Head Libraries & Community Services £58,225

 

NALIN SENEVIRATNE

Director of Capital & Major Projects £89,831

 

DAVID CAULFIELD

Director of Regeneration & Dev Services £89,831

 

PAUL BILLINGTON

Director of Culture & Environment £89,831

 

MICHAEL CROFTS

Director of Business Strategy £81,645

 

BRENDAN MOFFETT

Director of Marketing Sheffield £76,922

 

EDWARD HIGHFIELD

Director of Creative Sheffield £76,922

 

JULIE TONER

Director of Human Resources £81,645

 

BEVERLEY COUKHAM

Director of Business Strategy £81,645

 

ALINE HAYES

Interim Director of ICT £81,645

 

ANDREW ECKFORD

Director of Finance £81,645

 

GILLIAN DUCKWORTH

Director of Legal & Governance £81,645

 

JULIE BULLEN

Director of Customer Services £76,922

 

NEIL DAWSON

Director of Transport & Facilities Mgt £76,922

 

ANGELA CAWKWELL

Head Business Chge & Programme Delivery £68,484

 

ANDREW HOWELLS

Interim Director of Commercial Services £58,225

 

Total £3,299,810

 

Absolutely disgraceful. I thought Cameron was bringing in a policy to stop these people getting more than the Prime Minister?

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2015 at 20:39 ----------

 

This is my problem - do they run it? Or do those highly paid (and presumably qualified,) executives run it? Are we paying twice for the same thing? Do we need both? Where is the cross over?

 

Thanks rinzwind for the list of excecs. Quite an eye opener. God knows how 40 civil servants used to run the whole of India...

 

Good question Anna B.

[hauxwell]

Vote ukip people's army.

 

Yes I will.

[Longcol]

This is where all our money goes.

 

<snip>

 

Total £3,299,810

 

That only leaves another £1.3 billion to spend then

 

A tad short of all our money I think.

[gregnig]

Head of libraries still needed now a lot of them are run by unpaid volunteers?

[Anna B]

Well, an interesting meeting. A surprising number of people in the public gallery, (although quite a lot of them were Chinese university students.)

 

Some interesting questions from members of the public, but the answers were fairly stock-in-trade (a bit like TVs Question Time.) Yes, they said, 7 members of the council were worth their £100,000+, (John Mothersole is actually on £220,000,) - have to get the best people,- that was the going rate for the job etc etc.

I have to say, they didn't look very impressive to me, nor worth the money.

 

Anyway folks, the upshot is, Council Tax is going up, and the council has missed out on a £2,000,000 government grant because of it, though I do believe they are genuinely struggling to fulfill their commitments. They say their government money's gone down by 50% over the last 5 years, and much of it has been drained off to go down south. (There was a lot about the formula being used to calculate per capita grant money being changed to favour those in the south, but this bit was quite technical and it was difficult to hear at times.)

 

I still think £3.5 million spent on the salaries of just 37 council officers is ridiculous, and a cut in that could have gone a long way to plugging some of the gaps, as Rinzwind says. But without support, what can you do?

[tinfoilhat]

Well, an interesting meeting. A surprising number of people in the public gallery, (although quite a lot of them were Chinese university students.)

 

Some interesting questions from members of the public, but the answers were fairly stock-in-trade (a bit like TVs Question Time.) Yes, they said, 7 members of the council were worth their £100,000+, (John Mothersole is actually on £220,000,) - have to get the best people,- that was the going rate for the job etc etc.

I have to say, they didn't look very impressive to me, nor worth the money.

 

Anyway folks, the upshot is, Council Tax is going up, and the council has missed out on a £2,000,000 government grant because of it, though I do believe they are genuinely struggling to fulfill their commitments. They say their government money's gone down by 50% over the last 5 years, and much of it has been drained off to go down south. (There was a lot about the formula being used to calculate per capita grant money being changed to favour those in the south, but this bit was quite technical and it was difficult to hear at times.)

 

I still think £3.5 million spent on the salaries of just 37 council officers is ridiculous, and a cut in that could have gone a long way to plugging some of the gaps, as Rinzwind says. But without support, what can you do?

 

Then if they can't get a £2m grant and the money has gone down 50% ( can it be just me who thinks that's rubbish?) then they ain't worth the money are they.

[Anna B]

I'm interested in what gripes Anna B has with the budget the Council is going to approve this afternoon, and what her own suggestions would be that don't result in a collosal increase in my Council Tax

 

My main gripe, (though there are others,) is that there are at least 37 people working for Sheffield City Council who earn over £50,000+ and 7 of those earn over £100,000. John Mothersole alone earns £220,000. Several of them earn more than the Prime Minister.

 

The bill for these 37 people alone comes to £3.3 million. In times of austerity this is a ridiculous amount, and judging by today's council meeting they are simply not worth it, nor do I think some of the jobs are necessary, (Executive director of Place, ? £141,536, Director of Public Health £98,453, Consultant in Public Health £81,613, Head of Public Health intelligence £67,885, Director of health improvement £76,992, - do we really need all of these?)

 

Instead of taking a pay cut or even redundancy, these 'public servants' are going to raise money by putting council tax up, and this means they also forfeit a government grant of £2million.

If they all agreed to reduce their salaries to, say, £50,000, the council would save £1.5million AND qualify for the extra £2million from the government. That's a net saving of £3.5 million going into Sheffield's budget.

 

Many people in Sheffield are living hand to mouth and would think £50,000 generous.

 

A full list of all 37 and their salaries has been put on 'General Discussions' under the thread title 'Political Apathy.'

Edited March 6, 2015 by Anna B

[Guest sibon]

Then if they can't get a £2m grant and the money has gone down 50% ( can it be just me who thinks that's rubbish?) then they ain't worth the money are they.

 

Unless CT has gone up by more than £2m, in which case the council have more to spend. The 50% cut is non-negotiable, it has happened.

 

The Government are playing a clever, but cruel game with local government finance. This despite the fact that they claim to support devolving power and finance to local authorities. They are lying, of course.

[Cyclone]

Perhaps you should actually know whether we need them or not, before you form your opinion.

These people are not members of the council of course, and are not putting our council tax up.

 

Why would they agree to reduce their salaries, they could probably leave and go to the private sector and earn more, leaving the council to backfill the positions, costing the same salary again, plus the cost of recruiting.