Agenda item

To consider the report of the Senior Manager (Democracy and Delivery).

Submitted – the report of the Senior Manager - Democracy and Delivery seeking the committee’s opinion on options regarding financial remuneration for elected members.

The Senior Manager - Democracy and Delivery explained that the Independent Remuneration Panel’s final proposals for the next year noted that every individual council would decide:-

·         To set Cabinet Members on one of two levels, Level 1, £29,000 (as at present) or Level 2 (£26,000);

·         To set Committee Chairs on of two levels, Level 1, £22,000 (as at present) or Level 2 (£20,000).

The committee was also asked to consider if there was a difference in the responsibilities shouldered by the committee chairs who received special remuneration at present, namely the Scrutiny Committees (x3), Audit Committee, Planning Committee, Licensing Committee and the Employment Appeals Committee, and the chairs of some of the other committees, which did not receive special remuneration, such as the Pensions Committee, the Language Committee and this committee.

The Senior Manager – Democracy and Delivery noted that the Head of Finance Department had drawn attention to the fact that there had been a substantial increase in the Pensions Committee Chair’s work as a result of the establishment of the Pensions Board (which held the Pensions Committee to account). Also, over time, there would be some more work happening in the pensions field on a regional level.

The Head of Democratic Services noted that the Employment Appeals Committee’s workload had decreased during the last few months and the number of appeals would be likely to decrease further in the future as more of the work would be done by officers and the trade unions.

The Senior Manager – Democracy and Delivery further explained that a cap was set on the number of chairs who could receive special remuneration, and by adding one chair to the list, another would need to be removed.

Observations arising from the discussion:-

·         The Cabinet members’ duties had been allocated to ensure consistency and a balanced workload and putting Cabinet members on different pay levels could lead to some complexity, meaning that shifting duties from one Cabinet member to another would become more difficult.

·         The geographical nature of the county and the challenge of providing services across the second largest county in Wales was a factor that should be considered for the Cabinet members and the committee chairs.

·         Members were required to travel across Gwynedd, bearing in mind that it could take approximately two hours to travel from the North of the county to the South.

·         As it appeared that the workload of some chairs was larger than others, a small group should be established to look into this further.

·         Needed to see if using some elements of the job evaluation procedure would be helpful for this further work.

·         The importance of considering elements other than the number of meetings, e.g. the length of meetings and demands outside the meetings.

RESOLVED

(a)       To recommend to the Council that the salary levels of Cabinet Members should remain at Level 1 (based on consideration of the workload and equal responsibilities in the work fields) and the salary levels of Committee Chairs should remain at Level 1 (based on consideration of the workload, the geographical nature of the county and the requirement to attend meetings, etc.).

(b)       Establish a small group made up of the Chair of this committee, and Councillors Charles Wyn Jones, Anne Lloyd Jones and Dilwyn Morgan to re-examine the responsibilities attached to different chairmanships, and reporting their recommendation to the Full Council via the Business Group.