Council bosses forced to halt recruitment for new deputy chief executive
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The recruitment of a new £122,812 deputy chief executive for Highland Council has been paused after uproar at a finance committee.
Councillors, fresh from the controversy of the local authority paying £936 a day for an education consultant, baulked at another highly priced appointment.
Tensions were high at the meeting and the chairman, Councillor Alister Mackinnon (Dingwall and Seaforth), was initially reluctant to go into the matter but agreed to allow a vote to proceed.
Councillors agreed to pause the recruitment process until it can be discussed at the next full council meeting on September 10.
A review will also be launched to look at whether the senior management structure is being delivered according to its original aims.
Throughout, members were angered by the way the news was revealed to them through colleagues rather than being informed by the administration or the chief executive’s office.
Members were also concerned that the job title and duties had been altered without prior agreement.
Councillor Duncan Macpherson (Inverness South) voiced come of the concerns of members at the changes.
He said: "My recollection is that we had this chief operating officer, there was never a mention since former deputy chief executive Derek Yule left Highland Council that we were to bring a deputy or an assistant chief executive.
"It was a new role for someone to head up the whole new management structure.
"I am alarmed that as an elected representative hadn't been consulted at all and the first I knew that we would be appointing someone to this new position was when I received an email after the fact."
