Councilllors have defended a move to award a redundancy package of about £225,000 to the chief officer of a council with an annual revenue budget of £11.3m, describing criticism of it as “absolutely ridiculous”.
A meeting of Hambleton District Council’s cabinet saw its leader Councillor Robson and other leading members state its chief executive, Justin Ives, would only receive what he is entitled to under the terms of his contract and the council’s policies “and not a penny more”.
Although the council report on the issue had highlighted awarding a large payout would be likely to attract scrutiny, the meeting heard claims in seeking one councillor’s view on the settlement the press was attempting “character assassination” of Dr Ives and was aiming to “cook up a scandal”.
Councillors also claimed that by critcising the deal Unison were guilty of double standards, as they would be pressing for the best outcome for their members.
Cabinet members approved recommending the redundancy package, which will be given to Dr Ives as the unitary North Yorkshire Council takes over on April 1, be sanctioned at a full council meeting next week.
Coun Robson said: “We wouldn’t be treating the chief executive any differently to what we would deal with any member of staff within this authority. We have council policies that are there so our staff are tret fairly. It’s a council policy that is same for all members of staff at whichever level they’re at.”
He said while his name had been at the foot a council report recommending the proposed payoff, he had not written it.
He said: “Just to be very clear I did not write the report. It’s as a result of an amount of negotiations between the legal people and the chief executive, in conjunction, obviously, with myself.”
Coun Robson said letters sent to councillors from Unison suggesting they were “looking at a golden goodbye” were “absolutely ridiculous”, but added he could not give an exact figure over the pay-out as it remained unclear how many weeks pay for untaken holiday the chief executive would be due.
He said the proposed deal, calculations for which have not been published, was only being put forward because of local government reorganisation and he was sure the chief executive “no more wants to leave the authority than I will as its leader next March”.
The meeting heard the county council had taken a stance that all the borough and district council chief officers would not be transfered to the new unitary authority, but Hambleton had taken legal advice that was contrary to that.
Coun Robson said: “We are where we are because it is being forced upon us by the new authority that will take place from April 1.”
Councillor Isobel Sanderson said under Dr Ives’ leadership the authority had put itself in a strong financial position with a loan deal with Broadacres Housing Association, developed a crematorium and the Treadmills redevelopment of the former Northallerton prison site.
She said: “Nobody’s got to forget that underneath all this we have someone who’s losing his job. Someone who’s is, I would say, at a very crucial age to lose your job, to be made redundant. You have some maximum earning years. It will be very difficult to find another job as a chief executive I am sure.”
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