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If you were a councillor...


CrunchieSquirrel
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I have heard that a certain Chief Executive who was not long in the post had to go because he was starting to look too closely at staffing levels in all levels of the council.  Also heard that something similar may have been the real reason what another short lived Chief Executive had to go.  Of course I am not making accusations.  Just reporting that I have heard these things.

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I have heard that a certain Chief Executive who was not long in the post had to go because he was starting to look too closely at staffing levels in all levels of the council.  Also heard that something similar may have been the real reason what another short lived Chief Executive had to go.  Of course I am not making accusations.  Just reporting that I have heard these things.

I have heard that there is some amount of pish that is heard at times or maybe its true.

 

From this thread it looks like we should be getting a lot more candidates when the time comes it could be eventful.

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I have heard that a certain Chief Executive who was not long in the post had to go because he was starting to look too closely at staffing levels in all levels of the council.  Also heard that something similar may have been the real reason what another short lived Chief Executive had to go.  Of course I am not making accusations.  Just reporting that I have heard these things.

Heard this as well but, from the man himself.

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If you don't want to be humiliated/insulted/etc then, you've got no business posting here... :razz:

I'm sure that's tongue in cheek humour ;) but, for the sake of clarity anybody carrying on in that fashion does nothing to engender civil conversation. *exit stage left*

 

Yes it was a little toungue in cheek but, seriously, if anyone has anything to say then, they should say it.  Others may not agree/like your position but, that's their problem not yours.

 

Keeping quiet for the sake of not 'upsetting' others will only give you ulcers... :thmbsup

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I think the current council is doing quite a good job of reducing staff levels. As mentioned, they had a purge of middle management of few years back and they're taking on new staff at a fraction of the level that people are leaving, retiring or taking redundancy. Redeployment, rather than forced redundancy, seems to be the norm.

 

It think it's a sensible approach, and it could have some pretty dire consequences if there was to be mass redundancy.

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We get in the region of £95 million in revenue grant from the Scottish Government.  We spend about £75 million of that on staff wages.

 

If this isn't ringing alarm bells in councillor's ears than nothing is.

 

Aren't Revenue Support Grants calculated based on the extent of recurring costs? Meaning that, to a certain extent, reduction of recurring costs also means reduction of the grant?

 

And do staffing costs not make up the largest proportion of recurring costs within all/most local authorities?

 

All genuine questions as I do not know exactly how this works.

 

 

 

I belive you're right on both counts hjasga. Also, many staff raise significant external funds that more than cover their wages meaning a net gain to the local economy, which isn't reflected in the revenue grant figures.

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I actually got divorced quicker than the speed at which Housing take to resolve a matter.  Ghostie is still waiting for answers; many of the Housing Officers appear to be incapable of looking at previous correspondence in the file and can't understand plain English.

 

So if the Housing debt is cleared, how about getting rid of Housing to a housing association but don't TUPE the incompetent staff over ... it would be interesting to see how they get on but given I know someone who asked the same question as a Hjaltland tenant, it sure as hell didn't take them years to get an answer!

 

The issue still isn't resolved.

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I think the current council is doing quite a good job of reducing staff levels. As mentioned, they had a purge of middle management of few years back and they're taking on new staff at a fraction of the level that people are leaving, retiring or taking redundancy. Redeployment, rather than forced redundancy, seems to be the norm.

 

It think it's a sensible approach, and it could have some pretty dire consequences if there was to be mass redundancy.

 

 

Worse than the hatchet job through front line everything during the last round of cuts.....maybe, but I've yet to be convinced.

 

In all honesty, if there was a serious tightening up on ensuring the competency and ability of the holders of most positions, and the same on work procedures, the savings from the improvements in time management and value for money would result in some positions becoming automatically superfluous.

 

I could list here quite a long list of time and money wasting, and wholly pointless "standard procedures" which I've personally experienced, some multiple times, in my own dealings with various portions of the SIC. On an individual level the sum involved is of course relatively small, but multiply it across the board, which be the vast majority of accounts is very likely the case, and the daily, weekly etc time, effort and cost to the SIC as an organistaion, and the public as financiers, become horrendous.

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^....and before anybody jumps on here and demands I be strung up.

 

I'm not singling out individuals in the above, as obviously I'm not in a position to be fully informed of the overall circumstances enough to do that.

 

What I am getting at is that from an outsiders perspective, the system of procedures, allocation and delegation of tasks, chains of communication/command etc which appear to be in place are about as far from ideal as it is possible to get, and only function to any degree at all as there are some individuals in the system who are conscientious enough to go that bit beyond what would be reasonably expected of them, to ensure at least a few things happen without descending in to a shambles.

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Aye that is true......was the ones before him I was thinking of.

I think when Dave Clark was on the hot sausage roll rack (sorry!) then I think his post was permanent. After these controversial arguments with another councillor (a good friend of mine) then I think it was either Clark had enough of the job or Sandy Cluness fired him. I think it was both but not sure..

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