THE chief executive of Sefton Council has accepted a pay-off worth almost £250,000.
A behind-closed-doors meeting also agreed to set December 31 as Graham Haywood’s final day in office after 16 years in the role.
The settlement brings an end to months of uncertainty over his position after a tug of war between the political parties over the council’s senior management.
Insiders say the Liberal Democrats fell out with the Conservative and Labour groups over which top-level staff would be kept on after a review.
The review of major services should have saved Sefton £1m in its first year.
It will see contracts offered to the private sector to run the council’s technical services and finance and information services departments.
But Mr Haywood’s £236,000 settlement will eat in to any savings made.
The employment procedures committee has also agreed to payoffs worth £60,000 each for the directors of both privatised departments.
The three-strong committee has members from each of the parties.
Liberal Democrat member Cllr Simon Shaw voted against Mr Haywood’s pay-off because he and his party thought the settlement was a waste of funds.
He said: “This is going to involve the council in a very substantial amount of expenditure and I and the Liberal Democrat group do not see why we are paying a lot of money to get rid of a chief executive who’s continuing to do a thoroughly reasonable job.
“Why is Sefton council shelling out a substantial amount of money in an agreed settlement?”
But chair of the group and Labour group leader Cllr Peter Dowd defended the pay-off.
He said:“You have to get this into some sort of context and proportion. We are talking about an authority that’s get a budget of £300m.”
Cllr Dowd added he was keen to get “closure on the issue”.
“It’s a question of getting a structure and timetable to a process that’s now been going on for a little while,” he said.
“We’ve been to the District Auditor – everybody who’s anybody has had sight of those proposals and they are satisfied that they are reasonable in the circumstances.”
The council has been assessing its management as part of a major services review since October, 2007.
Mr Haywood put forward money saving proposals that included liquidating the position of deputy chief executive and strategic director for regeneration.
The Liberal Democrats agreed with the proposal because they thought the council was top heavy following a programme of down- sizing.
But the Labour and Conservative groups objected because they wanted to keep a senior regeneration manager at a time when the borough was planning large developments.
Insiders also describe a spat in which the Liberal Democrats chose Mr Haywood over his deputy, Alan Moore, who is currently suspended, while a Labour-Tory alliance backed Mr Moore.
The larger Labour-Tory block voted en masse to quash Mr Haywood’s proposals.
Mr Haywood, the insiders continue, tendered his resignation because he felt his position was untenable.
He was offered a redundancy payout in a move that was later found to contravene the council’s constitution.
The employment procedures committee was formed to deal with the fall out from the blunder and to settle other redundancies.
Cllr Peter Papworth, Tory representative on the committee, said: “He's an exceptional chief executive, but he has been there a while and other people than me have decided that everybody's mutual interests would be best served.
by: Ben Schofield