CARDIFF council’s next chief executive will earn more than the First Minister, the local authority has confirmed.
Former chief executive Byron Davies’ replacement at County Hall has been promised £175,000 a year in a job advertisement.
The successful applicant will become Wales’ highest paid town hall official, taking home more than First Minister Carwyn Jones’ £132,862 salary but less than Cardiff’s highest paid public servant: medical director Ian Lane, of the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, who pocketed £192,800 last year.
The Taxpayer’s Alliance said executive pay in the public sector was “completely divorced” from reality.
Policy analyst John O’Connell said: “Ordinary families struggling to make ends meet don’t pay their taxes to fund gold-plated deals for public sector fat cats.
“Taxpayers want transparency, accountability and restraint in setting top public sector pay.”
Across the UK, council chief executives’ salaries have risen to as much as £247,164 a year for Joanna Killian, chief executive of Essex council, which is more than four times the size of Cardiff with 1.4 million residents.
Labour councillor Martin Holland said he was no longer surprised by huge chief executive salaries but said the council needed to come clean about any additional pension benefits that would be paid to acting chief executive Tom Morgan.
Mr Morgan has spent a short-term stint in the job following Mr Davies’ retirement last year.
The chief executive post has been advertised with a deadline of April 4 on the council’s website and in the local authority publication Municipal Journal.
As well as having the opportunity to gaze out over the Red Dragon centre and across to the National Assembly, the advert says the next occupant of the office will have to be “an inspired and committed candidate ready to provide corporate leadership to drive forward strategic organisational change”.
It concludes: “Cardiff council has embarked on an innovative and essential transformational change programme which you will lead on, setting the strategic direction of the authority and communicating the vision and values throughout the organisation.
“Cardiff has enjoyed an incredible transformation story and we are looking for the person that will lead Cardiff council to deliver the next chapter.”
The Institute of Directors has said a managing director of a private organisation with a turnover of between £50m and £500m could expect to earn £141,440 and an executive director £87,000.
In a blog post, former Welsh Secretary John Redwood summed up right-wing objections to the scale of local authority chiefs’ salaries.
Mr Redwood said: “I don’t mind people earning big sums in a competitive private sector company which is thriving.
“I do mind people in the public sector earning salaries well into six figures when we have no choice and when their jobs are not comparable to the risk-taking revenue-seeking jobs in the private sector.”
