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1 December 2024
I mentioned my concerns about the appointment of HPC’s new Chief Officer in my last blog on 25 November. I e-mailed today to Stan Jones, the Chair of HPC, setting out these concerns. The e-mail is below. I hope it is self- explanatory.
“Dear Stan
As you know, I e-mailed to the deputy Clerk after the Council meeting on 19 November asking for clarification about what was decided. I copied this e-mail to Council.
One of the items I queried was the appointment of a Chief Officer to the Council.
As I said in my e-mail, I was confused by the discussion. You and the locum Clerk, Mr Truppin, had what I thought was an unnecessary and over- long argument which excluded the rest of the Council; you, Mr Truppin and Cllr Prashar were also clearly annoyed at the suggestion that anyone should seek further information or ask questions.
So, as I explained in my e-mail, I decided not to explain my concerns at the meeting; I merely asked for a recorded vote and voted against.
The only response was an e-mail from Cllr Prashar to Mr Truppin saying “Officers should not be expected to waste their time responding to [such] emails”.
I am sorry that the meeting was such that I felt unable to share my concerns at the Council meeting in confidence and also sorry that no-one was interested to learn what they were when I e-mailed.
This means I now need to raise my concerns formally and put them into the public domain.
I see that the draft minutes are now online at Full-Council-Minutes-11-19-24-DRAFT.pdf.
The draft minutes record that:- “By a majority of 7 to 1 the Council duly RESOLVED to approve the appointment of Marian Yasseen as the Chief Officer.”
My concerns, in short, are that Council appointed Marina Yaseen as its Chief officer not Marian Yaseen.
It is unclear whether Council appointed Ms. Yaseen on 19 November or at some unspecified date yet to be decided by Council.
Ms. Yaseen was not appointed as the Council’s Proper Officer or RFO and therefore cannot perform the statutory duties and responsibilities of these roles.
And whatever, the date of Ms. Yaseen’s appointment, she cannot be paid until Council decides her salary rates.
Residents might like to note that Council contracted out the support for its recruitment. The consultants recommended the change of title from Clerk to Chief Officer to make the post more attractive. The forecast outturn for the cost of HPC’s recruitment this year is £10,000.
These are my concerns in detail:-
1. HPC’s Scheme of Delegation reserves the power to appoint any council officer to Full Council by resolution following a recommendation from the HR Committee.
There was no recommendation from the HR Committee.
The supporting paper for this item (such as it was) was signed by a “recruitment panel” consisting of Cllr Prashar, Cllr Cadwallader and the locum Clerk.
I don’t know who authorised this recruitment panel. Did Council?
The recruitment panel made no recommendation or proposal to Council. The paper merely said “It was a unanimous decision to offer the appointment to the following applicant:”
2. The draft minutes correctly record that I “requested to view the CV of the candidate recommended for the position”. I also said at the meeting that I had never been asked to appoint a person on such scant information as provided in the supporting papers.
The draft minutes also record that “It was advised that personal information such as this was on a “need-to-know” basis and those who do not sit on the HR committee are not authorised to view this information.”
As you know, it was Mr Truppin, the locum Clerk, who provided this advice. I don’t know on what basis he said this.
I should point out that HR Committee does not appoint officers; Council does. It is Council’s decision.
HPC’s Code of Conduct for Councillors requires them to “exercise their own independent judgement, taking decisions for good and substantial reasons” (paragraph 10).
The Code also says, “As part of councillors’ decision making and for full transparency where the reasons for their decision are not otherwise apparent or required to be detailed, councillors will also be expected to state the reasons for their decisions”.
In compliance with the Code of Conduct, I am now stating my reasons for voting against the appointment of Ms. Yaseen. In my view, I was not provided with sufficient information about the candidate to exercise my independent judgement.
I should add that it is the responsibility of the Clerk “to produce the information required for councillors to make effective decisions.” In my view, the locum Clerk did not fulfill this responsibility.
Council should also note that in the past it was normal practice for Council to receive the CV’s of candidates; indeed this was done until Mr Truppin became locum Clerk and declined to provide his CV.
In the past, other Clerks including locum Clerks from the agency which employs Mr. Truppin, the Local Governance Resource Centre, provided their CVs to Council with no problem. Indeed, they were interviewed by Council before their appointment.
3. The agenda for the Full Council meeting on 19 November invited Council to “resolve to appoint as Chief Officer the person named in the supporting paper.” The person named in the supporting paper was Marina Yaseen. This was also the name you used when you asked Council to vote on the resolution.
However, the draft minutes record that Council resolved to “approve the appointment of Marian Yasseen as the Chief Officer.”
However, the Council appointed a person named Marina Yaseen, not Marian Yaseen.
I have to say that, if Council had been provided with Ms. Yaseen’s CV, there would have been no confusion.
4. Council was not asked to approve a starting date for Ms. Yaseen’s employment with the Council. Nor did Council do so. It is therefore unclear whether Ms. Yaseen was appointed as Chief Officer at the Full Council meeting i.e. on 19 November or at some future unspecified date.
If the latter, then Council will need to approve the date. As the next meeting of Council is not until 21 January, then Ms. Yaseen cannot start before then unless you convene an Extraordinary meeting and Council then approves a starting date.
5. Council approved the appointment of Ms. Yaseen as Chief Officer. Council was not asked to appoint her as Proper Officer nor Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) and nor did do so.
When Council decided to change the title of the Clerk to Chief Officer at its September meeting, I thought, as the minutes said, it was merely a change in title and the job description would remain the same; the Chief Officer would also be the Proper Officer and the RFO.
However, the job description of the Chief Officer on HPC’s website (see Chief-Officer-Vacancy.pdf ) does not include any reference to the statutory roles of RFO or Proper Officer. It therefore cannot be said that, by becoming Chief Officer, Ms. Yaseen automatically became RFO and Proper Officer.
I have to ask if the four candidates for the post actually understood that they would be expected to undertake these roles?
And where does that leave the Council?
If Council appointed Ms. Yaseen on 19 November, Council now has a Chief Officer, a locum Proper Officer, a locum RFO, a locum assistant RFO, a deputy Clerk, an Allotments and Burials Officer and a contracted temporary member of staff.
And I have to ask who is now responsible for what and who is managing which staff?
Is Council going to appoint Ms. Yaseen as RFO and Proper Officer? If so, when – because this can’t be until 21 January, unless and until you call an Extraordinary meeting.
6. HPC’s Financial Regulations require Council to agree an employee’s salary rates (paragraph 11.3). Council was not asked to agree any salary rates for Ms. Yaseen or nor did it do so. As a result, Council cannot pay her salary. Council cannot pay her salary until it agrees the rates at a Council meeting, and this cannot be done until the January Council meeting, unless and until you convene an Extraordinary meeting.
I am copying this e-mail to HPC’s new auditor, Mulberry Local Authority Services Ltd, who I assume is due to carry out a half year audit. They might note that the ex- internal auditor could give no assurance about the payments of salaries in his end-year report for 2023/4 on the grounds he was not provided with the information he requested.
I can only repeat that I regret that the Council meeting was such that I had no opportunity to put my concerns then.
Kind Regards
Linda
Councillor for Widmer End
Hughenden Parish Council”
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