Council seeking to recruit for independent role
Local authority bosses in Wolverhampton are looking to recruit an ‘independent person’ who can adjudicate on significant or consequential civic matters.
The council’s chief operating officer David Pattison told Thursday's governance and ethics committee that the council already has one person performing the role, but that it would be prudent to employ a second.
Matters including the council’s code of conduct regarding allegations that it has decided to investigate, or the dismissal of certain key officers were cited as examples of when the independent people would be called in.
“Currently we only have one independent person. By virtue of law, if the council wishes to dismiss a very senior post you need to have more than one. So we need to advertise for another in order to meet that requirement,” he said.
“This is a role with very minimal activity. Currently, under the allowance scheme, that person will have a maximum of £750 a year paid to them and that’s it. They are only required as and when needed.
“The criteria for the post is essentially someone who can exercise independent judgement in terms of probatory matters, ideally with experience in a particular profession. I’ve got criteria from other authorities that they have used, so I’ll be looking at putting something very similar in place.”
Chairing the meeting, Councillor John Reynolds said: “Just one independent person alone cannot reflect the make-up of the council, so we certainly need at least two.”
Conservative group leader Councillor Wendy Thompson) added: “My concern is that we have someone with the appropriate qualifications to do this – not someone who has just walked in off the street or someone who is an ageing trades unionist like we’ve sometimes had in the past.”
The committee agreed to approve the advertisement for the role. Council members, officers, their relatives or friends are prevented from being appointed as an independent person.
