three chairs

Looks like running Isle of Wight council a popular ambition for would-be CEOs

Tomorrow (Thursday) members of the Isle of Wight council’s employment sub-committee will be deliberating which of the three shortlisted candidates for the role of Isle of Wight council Chief Executive should be recommended to the full council next week.

IW CEO role proves popular
According to papers released by the council yesterday (Tuesday), recruitment consultants, Gatenby Sanderson, were brought in as the council’s recruitment partner to find the right person for the job.

A whopping 26 people applied for the role, which the full council agreed should be marketed with a minimum salary of £125,000.

The current Managing Director, Dave Burbage, plans to leave the council by the end of the year, so the new CEO would also be the Head of Paid Service.

The three candidates
OnTheWight hears from a source within County Hall the three shortlisted candidates include one current member of staff and two external candidates.

When councillors debated whether the authority should go out to the market for candidates, it was suggested that fresh new blood was important to take the Island forward.

Recruitment cost – £19,000
The papers also reveal the cost of the recruitment process. They say,

The cost of appointing a recruitment consultant to support the process, and the use of an external venue to host the panel presentations has cost approximately £19,000

Cost of CEO role
Although once commanding consulting fees in excess of £150,000, at the time the current MD made clear his intention to leave the council, his salary was at the reduced figure of £99,606.

Credit where it’s due, the reduction in salary was volunteered by Mr Burbage when the Government cuts started to really hit the council. He shifted from consulting fees to PAYE in 2013.

Although the final agreed salary and ‘on costs’ will be provided to Full Council as part of the recommendation next week, papers state:

The salary of chief executive was advertised at a minimum salary of £125,000 (with on-costs this equates to £168,717) which will incur an additional recurring full year cost to the council of £52,863 (from an available budget of £115,854). Approving a higher base salary will increase the impact further and Full Council acknowledged that resultant savings to address the shortfall need to be secured or accept that the additional costs incurred by this decision will add to the existing budget gap.

Full details can be found in the paper below.

November 2015 Full Council Paper B

Paper B[5]Full Council November 2015 paper B

Image: jaygee311 under CC BY 2.0