£125,000 payout to departing Telford council chief
Friday 29th July 2011, 12:45PM BST.
TELFORD & WREKIN Council’s departing chief executive will receive a £125,000 golden handshake after offering to quit the authority, it was revealed today.
The payout to Victor Brownlees – who earned £149,000-a-year in his role at the council – does not include any legal costs which could add on a further £10,000 to the bill.
Union chief Jonathan Sedgebeer, Telford branch secretary for Unison, said the handout was “very disturbing” at a time when the jobs of hundreds of workers at the council were under threat.
And former council leader Andrew Eade called it an “unnecessary and huge pay-off” which would take the average man on the street years to earn.
Mr Brownlees will officially leave the council at the end of the month after his request to take voluntary redundancy was approved by the council’s personnel board on July 19. The decision to approve the payout was voted on at a full council meeting of the authority last night.
During the meeting it was also agreed to appoint Richard Partington, 45, as the new interim chief executive to serve in the role for the next six to nine months.
Telford & Wrekin Council leader, Councillor Kuldip Sahota, said he had full confidence in the new chief executive.
Russell Griffin, spokesman for the council, said they were unable to say what Mr Partington was being paid.
Councillor Eade today said: “I predicted that a six-figure sum would be squandered by the new Labour administration who have thrown away over £130,000 in an unnecessary and huge pay-off to the departing chief executive.
“This large amount of money would take many people in Telford & Wrekin years to earn and I doubt that the Labour administration would be so keen to spend this money like water if it belonged to them rather than to taxpayers in the borough.”
Mr Sedgebeer added: “This is all at a time when our members are facing redundancy payments of £5,000 if they’re lucky.”
By Jason Lavan
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JUST DISGUSTING!!!!
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Yup.
Corporate looting.
And they wonder why they are held in such contempt?
No wonder there are riots.
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It is common place for a Cheif Executive to leave when an administration changes. The Cheif prior to Victor was given a substantial payout.
Jonathon Sedgebeer should be saying
“its very disturbing” for this kind of payment any time.
This money making merry go round for Cheif Executives really needs to stop
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If someone quits their job, why should they get a payoff. He was not made redundant as the Council are looking for a new CE.
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Now we see why council tax keeps rising.
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Unison support Labour and the new Labour administration is responsible for this. How they explain it away will be fascinating. I’ll hazard a guess that spending £125 k now, will save us money in the long run – only a slightly different take on Tory assurances regarding Southwater. How many Telfordians could resign and receive such a pay off instead of just their P45?
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don’t forget that the Tories put him in place and set up the contract of employment. In fairness, the Labour Administration inhereted this situation and Victor could’ve stayed, but chose not to. The idea of being co-operative wasn’t appealing.
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No, John. That’s wrong. Labour are restructuring the organization they inherited and shifting the goalposts. The man is blameless. He’s been made redundant. But why?
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There’s nothing to explain away – the sum paid will be that in his contract of employment – no more, no less.
Do you imagine that senior figures in the private sector don’t get similar (often much higher) levels of compensation when they leave their jobs? Do you imagine that senior directors of Centrica, owners of British Gas aren’t entitled to large pay-offs when made redundant or seeking voluntary severance?
And before anyone plays the ‘but this is public money’ card – where do you think utility companies get their profit from? Did you think there was a magical capitalist way of making money other than screwing it out of the general populace with 18% increases in bills?
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Agreed – These lefty hypocrites are worse than the tories – and that’s saying something.
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Well done Labour. As expected you are living up to expectations.
You have as a first action of your Cooperative council admistration got rid of the best and most able CE in years. Perhaps he did not agree to be part of the plans to come.
Good luck Victor and you will be missed by all
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there goes that Parish cllr spouting a right load of tripe again.
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Next council position in another authority, here we come. It’s the local authority chiefs “jobs merry-go-round” in action again. No doubt Victor’s deputy will now step up to meet the challenge (and pocket the salary) of a role that was and remains anything but redundant.
If I go the JobCentre and “offer to quit”, do you think that they would give me a large pay-out as well.
No wonder Victor look as if he’s trying hard not to break into a huge grin in the photo above.
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This is disgusting as a) he wanted to quit – so therefore isnt “redundant” and b) he is being replaced by someone in the interim so again his post is not “redundant”.
I wouldnt get a payout if I quit my job – so why should he. Currently there are council employees in SCC on 90 days notice and TWC who are fearing for their jobs. Its a disgrace.
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I think anybody who works in the local authority should think ahead before seeking employment in the organisation. As with the private sector, when times are bad job losses can be expected. Just because you are serving the public should not entitle you to employment over others.
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How does he qualify for this when he has resigned his job ? If I offered to leave my job, I would not get anything !!
They have had to replace him with some one else, so it is not like he has been made redundant .
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Fair play to him, i’d do the same if I was in his position, but i’m lower down the food chain and thats life, so no point in moaning about it. Spend it wisely Victor!
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£125k payoff – and the justification is??
Answers on a postcard please
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See post number 14 below!
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i dont like being refered to as a telferdian thanks as far as im cocererned telford is a town center nothing else im a proud salopian from wrockwardine wood oakengates not a telfordian thanks
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Did they not teach punctuation or spelling in Wrockwardine Wood?
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Gosh, Peter. When was the position of Spelling Nazi advertised?
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You might be a proud Salopian like myself, but unfortunatly you do live in Telford, as Oakengates is also in Telford,as is wrockwardine wood, so you do come from Telford. Telford is not a town centre Telford HAS a town centre.
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how many cleaners or pot hole repariers would that pay for, its an outrage in this day and age of austerity that people get this in any job but particularly one about so called public service, he should give it to charity its a scandal
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would pref if he gave it me,(lol)
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You have to see this in the light of the fact that Mr Brownlees may have found himself in an impossible position.
Labour have declared their intent to run a ‘co-operative council’ – which in plain language means ‘government by committee’.
If you are the Chief Executive Officer, used to taking decisions based on your professional knowledge and experience, to have the ‘Executive’ work removed from your job is pretty hard to take.
He would have been downgraded and demeaned. He is absolutely entitled to receive a payout in lieu as the Council has effectively subjected him to constructive dismissal.
So a piece of petty political posturing by Labour has cost the Council £125k it can’t afford. And lost it an experienced public servant.
And we’ll see how ‘government by committee’ proves itself the first time there is any sort of crisis and quick, informed and effective decision-making is required. Watch for more botch-ups, breaches of the rules (and probably laws) and the wasting of money as they argue in closed committee rooms with reduced accountability.
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Good point, Bill. And Labour has already appointed a Political Overseer to ensure that all sing from the same hymnsheet.
It’s possible that the old and trusted method was brought out again, viz:
“Well, we are sorry to see you are going, but we will not stand in your way.”
“But I am not going anywhere!”
“I’ll repeat what I just said: “We are sorry to see you are going, but we will not stand in your way.”
“Oh, I see. Goodbye, then.”
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well unfair init, me and baz is strugglin to pay the rent, u make me sik mr,
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Well educated in English I see….
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He already earns around 4 times the national average so this “golden handshake” is just another kick in the teeth for taxpayers. Most of us would have to work for 4-5 years to earn this, paying tax in the process. The british public are already being squeezed dry, so payments like this are just insulting.
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people with money to burn,
giving it away to their friends with money to burn,
while rubbing it in the noses of the poor people they mugged it from.
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I would like to know which Councillor voted for and against this decision, I find it totally disgusting, if he wanted to quit, then they should have let him get on with it, we really cannot trust any of our elected members, a spineless bunch of people. Disgusting
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I do not think he wanted to go, Richard…
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outrageous
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I understand the interim appointment will be part-time until a Managing Director is brought in – with a number of duties being transferred to the leader.
Although elected, the leader is a councillor who needs to have no specific knowledge or skills, and can’t be sacked (except by the electorate every 4 years) if found to be less than incompetent.
The blurring of lines between appointed and elected posts is worrying.
‘The council’ – ie the councillors – appoints and employs officers. If the leader is carrying out duties previously done by a chief officer, who ‘employs’ him or her? Which way does line management work?
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oops – less than competent!
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In case anyone’s wondering, that’s a correction to a post of mine that hasn’t been published!
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this is so unfair on real council workers who are being forced to take reduced terms and conditions for fear of being sacked and redeployed to avoid paying a redundancy cheque
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will he get to keep his council I Pad ??
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Different council. Apart from that small fact, you are clearly a very sharp cookie John
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Disgusting, but sadly its not a public sector thing, it happens everywhere for the top jobs from football management to banking and even charities, its perverse to reward failure and creates the wrong incentives. We need the High Pay Commission to get involved and regulate top pay in this country for the sake of the nations health, wealth and happiness
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