The Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council submitted an application to leave the council under its severance scheme back in September, and Kevin Madge subsequently announced that a decision on whether or not to approve the application for redundancy would be put before councillors before the end of the year.
The agenda for the next full meeting of the council on 10 December (the final scheduled meeting of the year) makes no mention of the application which has thus mysteriously disappeared from view.
A couple of weeks ago the Carmarthen rumour mill had it that Mr James, who is also very lucratively paid to act as Returning Officer for Carmarthenshire, had checked his diary and suddenly realised that there was a general election to be held in May 2015. With a heavy heart and purely out of a sense of public duty, he had decided to stay on to organise the election, nobody else in Carmarthenshire being up to the job.
That may yet be the official line put out by the Ministry of Spin, but a more likely explanation is that with the public up in arms at the prospect of a six-figure pay-off for Mr James, the Labour Party suddenly remembered that there was an election looming, and a decision was quietly put on hold.
9 comments:
The press statement re his application for redundancy has also recently been removed from http://newsroom.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/media
Oh no! Don't tell me he's decided not to go. Apparently the Bryn Parry-Joneses in Pembrokeshire have been spotted (minus Porsche) shopping in Aldi so perhaps the prospect of similar such ignominy is putting off Mr James from leaving his own lucrative position.
Mfannwy hung on his leg and pleaded, tears filling her eyes: "Don't leave me Wickham, you can't leave me, I don't know what I will do if you leave me!".
"Oh, do get up, woman! Get back to the W.I. where you belong! Just sign these blank sheets of paper before you go."
"Yes, Wickham, anything you say, Wickham. A Porsche, would you like a Porsche ...?"
"I think you'll find there is a Ferrari in the car park but the lady wife might be prepared to have one, I suppose".
Exactly Blodwen.
Maybe is prospective employer saw the light and realised he's just too toxic.
We live in hope...
I think you've hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph, Cyneifiwr.
The word on the street is that the severance application is being quietly withdrawn for the moment because the powers-that-be don't want yet another scandal in a Labour-led authority just before crucial bye-elections and the General Election.
Maybe prospective new employers are getting worried about having to provide him with at least a Porche and anxious about how much it might cost to get rid of him if he doesn't pan out.
That (removed) press release stated “We will provide updated information as and when appropriate.” Surely now is an appropriate time - Carmarthenshire residents have a right to know what the current situation is. Is it too late for a question on the matter to be included in the agenda for the 10th December meeting?
If Mr James does intend to stay on until May and pocket the dosh as Returning Officer he will no longer be eligible for CCC’s severance scheme this year. I wonder if he will be using his ‘delegated authority’ to extend the scheme into the 2015/16 financial year.
Anon 13.04 I'd put nothing past that man - delegated authority to extend the redundancy scheme is indeed an odds-on possibility!
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