Pay packets at county hall
Ged Fitzgerald, Chief executive Lancashire County Council
Lancashire’s council boss pocketed a bumper £250,000 pay packet last year, the Evening Post can exclusively reveal today.
Ged Fitzgerald broke the quarter of a million pound barrier, becoming one of the highest paid local authority chief executives in the country.
His total remuneration included a £194,655 salary, pension contributions totalling £34,246 and a one-off payment of £5,260 for his role as returning officer during this year’s election.
Mr Fitzgerald was also paid £19,855 in expenses, which included £19,492 to cover the costs of relocating from Sunderland.
His pay is more than double the advertised £112,000 salary when his predecessor Chris Trinick took the job 10 years ago.
A recent pay review at county hall saw 4,000 staff have their wages cut.
It comes weeks after County Hall finance chiefs predicted savings in the region of £22.9m, although remained tight-lipped over where the axe might fall, and as unions ballot members over changes to pay and conditions.
New rules, which came into force in April, force councils to reveal the pay, bonuses and perks of senior staff members earning above £150,000 a year, in a bid by the Government to ease public anger over local authority “fat cats”.
Lancashire County Council’s accounts show that in 2009/10 Mr Fitzgerald’s total remuneration stood at £254,376.
Today, one union chief said it was too much. Carol Lukey, Lancashire branch secretary of Unison, said: “I do think it’s an exorbitant amount of money, but the county council will probably argue it’s market forces that put it at that level.
“Our members are facing pay cuts, cuts in terms and conditions and cuts in their expenses with the loss of the essential car users, so certainly it will sit badly.”
The last survey of senior council pay by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, covering the 2008/09 financial year, showed only three other council officers enjoy a higher total remuneration than Mr Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile, the total amount of salary, allowances and pension contributions paid out to LCC’s other eight senior officers stood at £1.1m last year.
Seven council officers, including Mr Fitzgerald, have total remuneration packages which exceed the Prime Minister’s £142,500 salary.
Helen Denton, the executive director for children and young people, was paid £151,741, while, Richard Jones the executive director for adult and community services was paid a total of £151,686.
The payout for the executive director for environment stood at £163,862, although this included a month of “handover” when both the current holder of the post, Jo Turton, and her predecessor were being paid.
The accounts reveal the county’s councillors received almost £1.4m in allowances.
Council leader Geoff Driver said: “The salaries of senior officers reflect the scale of the challenge we ask them to undertake in running the fourth largest council in the country with a budget of almost £2bn.
“In fact, the pay of all chief officers has been frozen for the past two years and again for at least the next year.
“Our leadership team has been responsible for providing better value for money for people in Lancashire than ever before this year by allowing the council to freeze council tax and save £21m while providing the same high quality services.”
The basic salary of LCC’s chief executive has increased from £150,000 in 2002 to £194,655 in April 2008.
Mr Fitzgerald, the former chief executive of Sunderland Council, replaced Chris Trinick in June 2008.
He was unavailable for comment as he is on holiday.
A County Hall spokesman said relocation covered legal fees, furniture removal and the cost of temporary accommodation.
For more on this story, see Monday’s Lancashire Evening Post.
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Comments
There are 27 comments to this article
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Travelling Man
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 08:29 PMSeems to me that having to work with Cllr Driver and his cronies makes this fair pay! And some of the items seem tenuous - for example he will only move once, the elections are only every four years so the LEP has maximimised his salary. Can I ask what the CEO of johson press got paid last year and what is their turnover - after all its just as fair as publishing this story?
Preston lass
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 01:17 AMI would imagine the 2 hour lunches are taken in the employees' own time, and would mean starting early or working late to balance this.
Haven
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 04:28 PMPending Moderation
Haven
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 04:27 PMPending Moderation
Haven
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 08:33 AMPending Moderation
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