The new Isle of Wight council Executive Committee meets for the first time this week (Thursday from 4pm).
In place of previously six councillors that made up the Executive under the Island Independents, the new Conservative-led council has grown this number to nine Members, as was announced last week.
To this number, it’s now coming to light, is being added another role: That of Executive Secretary. The first time there’s been one since the previous Conservative administration, almost four years ago.
Confusing actions
The role of Executive Secretary has gone to Councillor Bob Blezzard (Sandown North), the same councillor who in February last year (2016) – as part of the Individual Members’ Group (IMG) – called for the position to be scrapped.
Their proposal read:
Deletion of Cabinet Secretary post; Consider reducing the number of Executive members as per the Leader’s proposal in 2014 and BPLG discussion.
No Cabinet Secretary has been in post since 2013. As part of the discussion about the constitution to meet future needs of a smaller council in the devolution debate.
Update:
OnTheWight contacted Cllr Blezzard in advance of publishing, he got back to us this afternoon saying,
“You are quite right, I did object to this as an additional paid position last year. I do however take the view that given the new administration had to hit the ground running when the previous leadership chose to jump ship it is desirable in the short term to have someone in a co-ordinating role to work with the Leader and Executive members.
“As you are aware it is an unpaid non-voting role and I think I have a contribution to make to the smooth running of the administration until the election.
“You may be interested to note that I was offered the Executive Secretary role by Ian Stephens in 2014 and chose to decline the offer.”
SRA removed in 2016
The then-Leader of the council, Jonathan Bacon, pulled apart the 2016 IMG budget, stating that the Indies had no intention of appointing an Executive Secretary anyway.
Later that year, during the June 2016 full council meeting, the Special Responsibility Allowance (around £4,600) for the role of Executive Secretary was removed.
The minutes read:
“The role of Executive secretary has not been appointed to and this year it has been removed as a potential position and therefore the IRP has removed this from the list of SRAs.”
What is the role of Executive Secretary?
Cllr Blezzard won’t receive an additional remuneration for the position – even if the SRA had not been removed – as he is already receives one as Chair of Planning Committee and according to the Constitution “only one special responsibility allowance will be paid to any member”.
However, it does beg the question as to what the purpose of the Executive Secretary role is.
OnTheWight asked the council. It took a couple of days to get a response, but a spokesperson told us this morning,
“The role of the Executive secretary is a matter for the leader and it is his view that the Executive will perform even more professionally with the assistance of Councillor Blezzard in this role which is at no additional cost and brings further skills support and experience to the team.”
Background on Cllr Blezzard
Former Liberal Democrat, Cllr Blezzard was voted onto the current council in 2013 as an Independent candidate, teaming up with the Island Independent Group when they took power.
Back in 2012 Bob Blezzard resigned from the Liberal Democrat party. In a letter to Nick Clegg, critical of his leadership, Cllr Blezzard said he felt the party should not be in coalition with the Conservatives.
In September 2014, he resigned from the Island Independents and moved to the opposition table as an ‘independent independent’.
He then joined forces with other ‘independents’ who resigned from the Island Independents, Cllrs Richard Priest and Jon Gilbey, as well as former Conservative Julie Jones-Evans to form the Individual Members’ (IMG) Group.
In March 2015 he was confirmed as the Liberal Democrat agent for candidate David Goodall, but did not then join Cllr Barry as a Lib Dem councillor, but remained a member of the IMG Group.
Article edit
12.40: Start of Executive meeting changed from 6pm to 4pm
14.14: Comment from Cllr Blezzard added
