Monday, December 12, 2011

KENT WATCH - The Disappeared Officers and the cost

What is it with Kent Conservative Council lead by Cllr Paul Carter, and Senior Officers who manage the council day to day. It's not just the latest announcement that Katherine Kerswell has now left the council with an alleged payoff circa half a million, it's those others that have disappeared in recent times, the director of regeneration and transport paid off after a year with £365,000, last year another director "agreed" to take leave and has since left (in that case the details never became public), controversially former Chief Executive Peter Gilroy cost the council around an additional £200,000 (bonus) in his final year.


I guess Cllr Paul Carter and his administration has wasted well over a million pounds with it's handling of senior staff in the last three years.


My view of the last few days, is that Paul Carter's cabinet have not been as open as they could have been which is disgraceful in my opinion the press release issued on the 16th November seems like a master class in mis-information.


We like to think we live in a democracy, and we like to think, general principles like equality, honesty, and transparency exist, and also in a democracy we don't like to see, nor do we expect resources paid for by taxpayers to be used in a political manner.


I'm taking a guess that the new slim line management at KCC in which no "officer" has overall charge of management, has more to do with justifying and side stepping, this latest embarrassing debacle than any concept of management.


I understand a number of Conservative county councillors are annoyed at Paul Carters handling of the latest departure, a feeling shared I would guess by most of us taxpayers. Lets hope Paul Carter's the next to disappear from KCC.


Katherine Kerswell in Three KCC Press Release's confusing and meaningless to me but that's my view.


1 April 2010

Kent County Council today formally agreed the appointment of Katherine Kerswell as the authority’s new Group Managing Director.  The decision was made at today’s full council meeting.
Katherine is currently Chief Executive of Northamptonshire County Council and is the President of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE). She has had a successful and varied career at the cutting edge of local government spanning more than 20 years.
Paul Carter, Leader of KCC and Chairman of the Personnel Committee, said:
“We were all enormously impressed by Katherine’s breadth of vision and energy and her absolute commitment to placing Kent citizens at the heart of the services we deliver. She will be a worthy successor to our outstanding Chief Executive Peter Gilroy who leaves in May.”


16 November 2011
Since joining Kent County Council in May 2010, Katherine Kerswell has been an outstanding Managing Director. In a very tough financial climate and against a background of severe budget cuts, she has done a great deal to relieve the financial burden on Kent council tax payers and has implemented Paul Carter and the Cabinet’s strategy for reshaping the council. Significant savings have been made possible through the continuing restructuring process and the new operational framework presided over by Katherine Kerswell and the Corporate Management team so far.


We would like to make it clear that Katherine Kerswell is and remains the Managing Director of Kent County Council. It is completely untrue to suggest that she has been dismissed or put on garden leave.


Neither the council nor Katherine Kerswell will be making any further public statement.






8 December 2011

Katherine Kerswell has done an exceptional job at Kent reshaping our approach to service delivery and recasting our overall management arrangements.  She is a first-rate public servant with tremendous skills at making large organisations work well.  Her management direction has helped produce very significant savings to the council and confirmed Kent’s position as a leading authority. In just 18 months we have shifted from an approach that was highly departmental to one based on the whole organisation working together for the people of Kent. We now expect our Cabinet and Chief Officers to work more collaboratively together. This way of working has already resulted in improved services to Kent’s residents and lower costs to Kent’s taxpayers.
Now that these arrangements have begun to bed in, Katherine has discussed with the Leader, Paul Carter, the next phase for Kent and for her.  She is very keen to continue working at the leading edge of organisational and service change through investigating new models of service delivery.  Katherine will therefore be leaving the council by the end of the calendar year to pursue these new interests.
KCC now has the chance to review its management and governance arrangements and these will be considered at the County Council meeting on 15 December.  The decision will also enable Katherine to have the chance of taking a further bold step in her distinguished managerial career.

35 comments:

  1. Looks like hush money to me.

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  2. It does sound like hush money to many people. How much of these 'savings' will find its way into others pockets ? Most of these over paid staff and public servants could and should be removed starting with Carter first.

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  3. I don't see how the spending of any taxpayers money can be legitimately confidential.
    Good article in Private Eye about Carters antics. I will try and post it later.

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  4. So with the MD long gone and leader Paul Carter off on his holidays (car rally) for all of January who will be running the show/pantomine then?
    Its rather irresponsible as at this time the budgets are being set. Yes he can have a holiday but you and me would have to take time off when it suited our employers.

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  5. Another strange case was that of the former Director of Finance who was put on gardening leave in November 2010. In the accounts for 2010/11 she was still being paid and then dissapeared without a word from KCC. We await this year's accounts to see the size of her pay off.

    According to the accountancy age web site :

    THE NATIONAL AUDIT Office has bolstered its ranks with new assistant auditor general, Lynda McMullan.
    (sept 2011)

    Now they would not be able to do that if her record was blemished so why did KCC get rid?



    .

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  6. Paul Carters record with senior staff seems abysmal, it makes you wonder just how stupid the rest of them are.

    Re Carters holiday, who is going to run the show, surely not his deputy Alex King who needs to sort out a little misunderstanding over expenses.

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  7. Perhaps Clive Hart can do it in his spare time between swimming and running TDC, eh?

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  8. Anon 2.53, council superman Simon has plenty of spare time but he's not a KCC cllr yet.

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  9. please post Yogi the more tabs we have on these public servants the better !

    anon 10.52

    may be she knew too much ?

    Norman please spill the beans on Alex King expenses dilemma.

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  10. From Brinks Mat through allegedly corrupt Kent and Met cops to Murdoch Press to an axe in the head

    Socialist Worker piece but hey what has the IRA supportive SWP got to do with Thanet tories anyway eh ?

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  11. Prehaps retired Det Ch Supt Nick Biddiss was not exaggerating then in his assessment that News of the World put officers at risk ???

    So which Kent officers were flogging info to Murdoch Press then ?

    Did the Croydon area activity leading to the murder of Daniel Morgan have any connection with the Norris family, a Det sgt later accused of stitching up the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, Brinks Mat, Charlie Kray and a ubiquitous person from the world of Deal Barracks based paramilitary activity ?

    Mr FULLLER !!!!! Mr FULLER !!!! Bev NEWMAN !!! Bevf NEWMAN !!!!

    Oh let's ask our local member of the Police Authority BILLY BILLY HAYTON !!!!! Oh Billy left the police authority at about their last Chief Executive left ?? Rather as he left East Kent Maritime Trust when some cack was hitting the fan.

    Thankfully retd Det Ch Supt BIDDISS elected to forward copies of documents to Kent Police Pro Standards. Convcerning his other 1996 murder case Ken SPEAKMAN ex MI5 officer Ramsgate. Appears matters North Thanet tory may have been kept from the attention of the murder inquiry ....

    Yes that is North Thanet "What's the IRA got to do with us" tory party.

    Hope more emerges eh ? But don't hold yer breath.

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  12. Presumably Retarded confused the term 'officers' in the subject of this thread with police. His claims would be funny if they were not made with such malicious intent. What happened, old man, did the plod nick you somewhere along the way to generate such hate.

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  13. Funny how this sort of real story doesn't attract any comment or intervention from the local Tory blogging politicians. Moores and Wells occasionally venture here - but only when it suits their cause of course. Obviously too busy publishing childish, snide and vaguely pathetic "stories" on their own blogs that continue to demonstrate their sour grapes over the transfer of power in Thanet.

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  14. It doesn't attract any comment or intervention from the local Labour or Lib-Dem blogging politicians either as far as I can see...

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  15. 6:13 I suppose by childish and pathetic you are referring to the infantile note scribbled by our new and illustrious leader. I could not agree with you more.

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  16. It is ridiculous that supposedly 1 in 4 police officer are freemasons who are supposed to police freemasons. Its the public that need protecting from these secret societies operating in public office.

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  17. OMG, not the dreaded Hell Fire Club again. The thought of all these off duty cops in dark suits and aprons carrying off the nubile virgins from Margate (whoops there is a contradiction in terms) to their caves under Fort Hill.

    Quite unbelievable that any one in this day and age still believes that masons have any influence or that one in every four plods has an apron under his stab jacket.

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  18. Whats pathetic is that they are allowed into a public office of any sort in the first place. So much for transparency and justice, more like a Just Us System.If they have nothing to hide they have nothing to fear in showing themselves do they ? Of course a few have already declared at KCC but what about the rest and who does their allegiance lay with first, the lodge/temple or the public they 'supposedly' serve" ?

    Far too many questions remain unanswered including many from KCC and Kent police , whose serving who ?

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  19. 7:19 Complete an utter nonsense you spout. Being a mason these days is just like belonging to a club. Most of them publicly admit to being masons in the same way that others belong to golf clubs.

    I suppose it is something for tortured minds to cling to that there are secret societies keeping the rest of us in the dark. Bet you believe Harry Potter is real as well and most cops went to Hogwarts.

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  20. Isn't it a terrible state of affairs that we have to depend on foreign journalists and media to find out what is happening in Bent Britain as the Europeans are now calling us .

    Is this what KCC is so very worried about , watch from 60 minutes Florence Bellone winning her award for exposing corruption.

    http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/videoplayer.cfm?ref=81783

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  21. Not a secret club just a club with secrets, is what they like to sprout.You dont see the rest of us dressing up in white 'kid' gloves or a pinny (unless we are do the washing up )or practicing our funny handshakes or carry out secret rituals under the threat of death do you ?

    Anyone who comes up against these secret societies and there are many especially within the Judiciary, Councils, NHS etc all know exactly why they should be banished and shunned. The old boys club and charity work is just a front to coverup their secret antics that always happen behind closed doors.

    As they seek the 'light' why not open up their doors and fully expose themselves especially those in public service, lets have the figures then we can decide?

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  22. Not entirely sure why free masons have entered this thread but since they have I would question the drift of 8 19 that free masons are a benign group.

    Not sure how a secret organisation committed to looking after its own above all else could be regarded as anything other than suspect.

    In business for example the idea that normal competitive business transactions can take place is utter nonsense, when two masons are involved since they have a loyalty to each other.

    Also how surprising shortly after I mentioned masons in connection with KCC, one of their contractors threatened me with legal action.

    No doubt 8 19 a lot of masons are straight but human nature being what it is /

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  23. Tony, you have a point, but the same 'favouritism' could be applied to school ties, golf clubs, unions, regimental associations and sundry other organisations. If I was recruiting and two candidates were equal in all respects except one went to Chatham House, then the latter gets the job in my book.

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  24. Chatham House Rules both ... Common Purpose and the Freemasons operate under these ....but of course there's no secrecy involved yer right !

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  25. Anon 3.15 you did not explain whether it was the former or the latter that went to CH so we cnt tell whether it was a plus to go there or a plus not to go there.

    But back to KCC, the leader Paul Carter decided to sack/make redundant the MD weeks ago and in his arrogant way only got the go ahead to do so from the full council today. It seems that many of the councillors just turn up to nod and collect their annual £13k plus expenses.

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  26. Have just seen on Meridian Tonight how much this woman has been bought off with

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  27. 5:47 Well there we will just have to leave you guessing. Either way the inference is that memberships can influence for good or bad. Presumably our anti-masonic poster would never employ a mason or let one operate on him.

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  28. There are many people who have maneuvered their way into positions of authority that one wouldn't trust to run a pub, let alone have a say in the running our once great nation.

    Which is why it is crucial that all public servants are monitored and not self monitoring.

    Whilst the poorest who had no part in creating the financial crisis have the biggest burden imposed them, the richest, who caused the chaos, reward themselves

    What we have is an obscenity the government's actions are Antoinesque

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w-LgRs6FmM

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  29. Tony, any changes of opinion on CCTV on public transport now that a ticket inspector has been stabbed in the back?

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  30. Does Porno Pete ever make a sensible comment?

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  31. Yes. Here he's just reminding us of Tony's double standards and hypocrisy.

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  32. Can you tell me which council leader has emailed all the councils staff to ask for sponsorship money for his jolly 4 week jaunt to South Africa for a spot of motor rallying?

    A bit of an affront to all those low paid staff and those just being made redundant.

    I thought that using council resources for personal gain was an offence no different from using council cars for private journeys.

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  33. anon 8.26


    this one thinks he can do as he likes but he is sadly mistaken as hopefully he will soon find out !

    and why was he ever allowed to drive the 'company' car silver never did suit his colouring !

    many would personally sponsor him NOT to come back !

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  34. anon 7.35

    The answer to your question would be definitely not willingly and we should all be given the choice to choose.

    http://eutruth.org.uk/freemasoncontrol.html

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