Senior Newcastle councillor in u-turn over chief executive appointment
May 9 2009 by Amy Hunt, The Journal
Barry Rowland
“I wish there to be a united and non-controversial approach and I hope that a way forward will be found to maintain the integrity of the appointment process so that all members of the committee, irrespective of party, can support it.”
Coun Shipley also said he would like any further meeting on the appointment to be held in public.
Opposition leader Nick Forbes said: “There’s clearly a huge row going on behind the scenes in the Liberal Democrat group and I think that’s very unfortunate as it’s got in the way of probably the most important staffing discussion the council will have to make in the next 10 years.
“I very much hope the leader will exert his political authority and deal with the internal dissenters.
“My colleagues and I made it clear all the way through that the process must be open to competition and that we wouldn’t be prepared to participate in a process that wasn’t open and transparent.
“If the Liberal Democrats are changing their mind I’m more than happy to enter into discussions with them about how best to proceed, but our position remains unchanged.”
Since taking up the nine-month temporary post last year Mr Rowland, who was previously deputy chief executive, has overseen a process of shedding 510 posts at the city council.
The “transformation” programme aims to save £20m by reorganising the management structure.
As part of the process the post of deputy chief executive looks set to be scrapped, which would leave Mr Rowland without a job were he not permanently given the top job.
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