Thursday 20 June 2013

A Thoroughbred Race

Cardiff has suffered a temporary setback in the race to secure first place in the Meryl Gravell Welsh Council Highest Paid Chief Executive Stakes. Sir Peter Rogers was due to have been brought in on £1,000 per day until the council's cabinet got the jitters and deferred a decision.

This would have been a shattering blow for Carmarthenshire where we have to make do with a chief executive whose total pay package is worth slightly less than £250,000 in an average year, and who has only a measly CBE to his name.

The campaign to get our man a knighthood and a much deserved bumper pay rise must now be on in County Hall, but Cneifiwr is happy to report that he has not been entirely overlooked.

Church bells rang and champagne corks popped in Monmouthshire yesterday as the news came through that the Welsh Government is sending in an independent recovery board to sort out the county's schools, with top billing given to Mr Mark James, chief executive of Carmarthenshire County Council.

As the WLGA never fails to point out, Welsh council chief executives are extremely busy people with enormous responsibilities, so it is impressive that in addition to his onerous day job he finds time to serve as a non-executive director of one of the Welsh Government's Director General Corporate Governance Committees (generous pay and conditions as outlined here), as well as parachuting into Monmouthshire.

Nothing comes for free these days, so with any luck £1,000 a day should be achievable. That just leaves the knighthood.


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