Bumper Payouts
Here's an interesting story published by The Daily Record in 2011which reports on the the fees due to council chief executives for acting as 'returning officers' in various elections.
Now at the time of writing, I don't know if Gavin Whitefield donated any of his fee to charity, but in my day as Secretary to the JNC for Chief officials in Scotland these payments were negotiated and regulated in Scotland - not by the UK government as The Daily Record suggests.
I also wonder if these payments are 'pensionable' because it would seem rather ridiculous for chief executives to have these 'bumper payouts' included in their pension calculations when the business of overseeing elections is really not part of their days jobs.
Council chief in line for bumper payout for election work
BY ROBERT MITCHELL - The Daily Record (13 April 2011)
LANARKSHIRE’S two returning officers have refused to say whether they intend to donate bumper election day payouts to charity.
Gavin Whitefield
LANARKSHIRE’S two returning officers have refused to say whether they intend to donate bumper election day payouts to charity.
North Lanarkshire Council’s chief executive Gavin Whitefield will be able to claim up to £12,835 for overseeing polling for Holyrood in the area’s five constituencies – including Motherwell and Wishaw.
His South Lanarkshire counterpart Archie Strang will be entitled to claim a maximum of £11,090 for taking charge of four constituencies for the Scottish Parliament elections on May 5.
Mr Whitefield gets paid a salary of £136,848 and the Wishaw Press recently reported he was also eligible for up to £13,098 in pay-related to performance.
He decided to forego his negotiated annual pay increase of 2.5 per cent for the 2010/11 financial year, which equates to £3421. The £12,835 he is eligible to claim for the election is not paid for by North Lanarkshire Council, and the payment of returning officers is set by the UK Government.
Returning officers will also be paid for presiding over the Alternative Vote referendum which takes place on the same day, but that figure is not yet available.
It was recently reported that George Black, Glasgow Council’s £170,000-a-year chief executive, planned to give half his £40,000 returning officer’s fee to charity.
North Lanarkshire Council face budget cuts of £55m over the next two years and South Lanarkshire Council earlier this year cut £25m from their budget because of funding reductions caused by the collapse of the banks.
A spokesman for the North Lanarkshire returning officer said: “Returning officers’ remuneration, as with all expense incurred in running an election, is set by the UK Government and is not influenced in any way by the council. The returning officer will take a view on the payable amount at the appropriate time.”
LANARKSHIRE’S two returning officers have refused to say whether they intend to donate bumper election day payouts to charity.
North Lanarkshire Council’s chief executive Gavin Whitefield will be able to claim up to £12,835 for overseeing polling for Holyrood in the area’s five constituencies – including Motherwell and Wishaw.
His South Lanarkshire counterpart Archie Strang will be entitled to claim a maximum of £11,090 for taking charge of four constituencies for the Scottish Parliament elections on May 5.
Mr Whitefield gets paid a salary of £136,848 and the Wishaw Press recently reported he was also eligible for up to £13,098 in pay-related to performance.
He decided to forego his negotiated annual pay increase of 2.5 per cent for the 2010/11 financial year, which equates to £3421. The £12,835 he is eligible to claim for the election is not paid for by North Lanarkshire Council, and the payment of returning officers is set by the UK Government.
Returning officers will also be paid for presiding over the Alternative Vote referendum which takes place on the same day, but that figure is not yet available.
It was recently reported that George Black, Glasgow Council’s £170,000-a-year chief executive, planned to give half his £40,000 returning officer’s fee to charity.
North Lanarkshire Council face budget cuts of £55m over the next two years and South Lanarkshire Council earlier this year cut £25m from their budget because of funding reductions caused by the collapse of the banks.
A spokesman for the North Lanarkshire returning officer said: “Returning officers’ remuneration, as with all expense incurred in running an election, is set by the UK Government and is not influenced in any way by the council. The returning officer will take a view on the payable amount at the appropriate time.”
A South Lanarkshire Council spokesman said Mr Strang believed giving to charity was a matter between the individual and the receiving charities.
He added: “With regard to austerity and public sector cuts, Mr Strang and the council’s executive directors were the first senior local government officials in Scotland (in December 2009) to say that they were refusing a 2.5 per cent pay rise due to them from April 1, 2010.”
Representatives of both returning officers said payment was for more than just a day’s work.
A spokesman for Mr Whitefield said planning for the elections began in earnest in mid-December and would involve frequent meetings up until polling day.
Mr Strang’s spokesman said: “This is an exercise that takes months to organise. It involves an army of people and Archie is the general or field marshall. He is solely responsible and if anything goes wrong, it is his head on the block.
“This particular polling day is an enormous exercise, in terms of logistics, because it is combined with the AV poll.
“I know staff have been working from 6am some mornings to make sure that all the arrangements are in place.”
All of the votes in North Lanarkshire's five constituencies will be counted at the new Ravenscraig sports centre.
