WAVERLEY Borough Council is to follow up April's enforced redundancy of chief executive Christine Pointer by recruiting a managing director to head the council. The decision was taken by the full council on Tuesday, after a review of the top management structure including external advice and visits to other councils. For the past seven months the role of "head of paid services" has been filled by Waverley's four departmental directors - Peter Maudsley, Stephen Thwaites, Paul Wenham and David January - on a two-monthly roatating basis. But the new position will now be advertised both to existing staff and externally, after the Conservatives and Independents overturned the executive's recommendation that only existing staff be invited to apply. Lib Dem Ken Reed urged that they should choose an existing staff member that they know "warts and all". And finance portfolio holder Stewart Edge pointed out that an external appointment could mean the cost of another redundancy on top of the package given to Miss Pointer. He was halted short of revealing the joint figure, but said it would be significant, entailing a payback time of 10 years before savings would be realised. "This should not be perceived to be an inside job," argued James Mackie, suggesting that the costs should have been taken into consideration at the time of the "removal" of the chief executive. Adam Taylor-Smith pointed out that the title of managing director "sounds spookily similar" to that of chief executive and some other councillors queried the difference. But Victor Scrivens claimed it will be a totally different job, "much more geared up to operational involvement". He said the four departmental heads had been doing "a grand job individually and collectively - we have four excellent candidates, that is why we don't need to go elsewhere". Proposing that the job should be awarded in open competition, however, Pat Frost accused the Liberal Democrats of "trying to keep this very cosy" and forgetting about public perception. "The public need to know we are doing everything we can to get the right person in the top job. I would like to think it would be someone internally, but we don't know."
