One of Brighton and Hove's £125k directors quits (From The Argus)
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One of Brighton and Hove's £125k directors quits
1:30pm Tuesday 17th April 2012 in News
QUIT: David Murray
A £125,000-a-year council chief is to step down – but not until earning nearly half this year’s salary.
David Murray was one of four strategic directors brought in by Brighton and Hove City Council’s chief executive John Barradell as part of a restructure of top-level management partly designed to save millions of pounds.
But 18 months on, the local authority, faced with unprecedented Government cuts, has announced Mr Murray, whose portfolio was communities, has resigned.
However he will not leave until September, after he has overseen major events such as Pride, People’s Day and the Cultural Olympiad.
No details were released on whether Mr Murray would receive a payoff by the council.
Mr Murray said: “I’ve had a fantastic two years at Brighton and Hove City Council and, after a total of 24 years within local Government at a senior management level, it’s time for a change.”
Mr Barradell was forced to reshuffle the senior management team after councillors voted for more than £250,000 of savings to be found over the next two years at February’s budget meeting.
The Argus understands it was between Mr Murray and Charlie Stewart, the strategic director for resources, who were in the running to lose their jobs.
Council leader Bill Randall said: “David has been a great asset and has made an outstanding contribution to this city. His decision to leave us comes as the council moves forward into a committee structure system and at a time when savings need to be made at all levels of the organisation.”
Labour group leader Gill Mitchell said: “This can only be seen as one part of much needed overall reorganisation of the levels of senior management of the council to deliver better value for local taxpayers.”
Conservative deputy group leader Garry Peltzer Dunn said: “The opposition groups heard about this as a fait accompli so obviously the reason can only be explained by the Green administration.”
Coun Peltzer Dunn added he was not aware of any financial implications as of yet.
The council’s new strategic leadership board will be made up of the chief executive, three strategic directors and director of finance.
This will see the communities and resources portfolios merged while Mr Barradell will also take direct control over some departments including communications, troubled families and legal and democratic services.
Comments(14)
fedupwithgreens
says...
1:45pm Tue 17 Apr 12
Man With No Name
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1:51pm Tue 17 Apr 12
ShorehamBeachcomber
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2:25pm Tue 17 Apr 12
rolivan
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4:19pm Tue 17 Apr 12
billy goat-gruff
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4:57pm Tue 17 Apr 12
onedaytheleftwillburn
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5:37pm Tue 17 Apr 12
Dave At Home
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6:02pm Tue 17 Apr 12
leobrighton
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6:07pm Tue 17 Apr 12
HJarrs
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8:07pm Tue 17 Apr 12
I don't know if David Murray was worth the money or not, but he would probably not have made it into the first team of earners at the Albion.
B G Gruff
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8:23pm Tue 17 Apr 12
leobrighton wrote:Yes it probably does need overseeing. Since two of them were going for one job it seems that some agreement was reached, probably involving a pay off and gagging clause. It would be interesting to see how much of an improvement the new directors have been on the previous ones who were paid less. is there any way of measuring this? probably not in the same way that there is little way to measure the success of 'intelligent commissioning'.
Doe's Pride, Peoples Day and Cultural Olympiad need overseeing by the council? Better if they kept out of them.
Maxwell's Ghost
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9:21pm Tue 17 Apr 12
george smith
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10:12pm Tue 17 Apr 12
Morpheus
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9:33am Wed 18 Apr 12
fedupwithgreens says...
1:44pm Tue 17 Apr 12