The East Anglian Daily Times has a story today about Suffolk County Council that proves the fiasco surrounding their new Chief Executive's massive salary was far from being a one-off.
Suffolk CC's Communications chief left abruptly after the County Council's Chief Executive's outrageous new salary hit the national news. The news that his replacement will earn £81,000 also attracted criticism (not least from us). Now it emerges that in the interim, consultants are being paid £500 a day to stand in and run the department.
Shockingly, the council's defence is
...we are paying less now than we would have paid the previous communications manager. Even taking account of paying a consultant £20,000, and an honorarium to existing staff for covering the post, it will be less than the £27,000 we would have paid our previous communications manager over this period.
Yes, they think this exorbitant amount is fine, just because it's cheaper than the even more exorbitant amount than they paid the former holder of the post. And my fish and chips this lunchtime was the healthy option because I had a deep fried Mars bar yesterday.
I think that tells us all we need to know about the pay culture of council management, don't you?