‘Highly respected’ Bournemouth council officer loses job (From Bournemouth Echo)
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‘Highly respected’ Bournemouth council officer loses job
10:30am Saturday 31st July 2010 in
A SENIOR Bournemouth council officer, who was responsible for ensuring the legality of the council’s financial affairs, has been made redundant.
Judith Martin, who was the resources service director and Section 151 officer, has left the council after eight years’ service.
It comes as Bournemouth council attempts to cut costs by reducing the number of service directors. Previously it operated with 15 but the departure of Ms Martin and imminent departure of Roger Brown from leisure services will leave it with 13.
News of the redundancy has surprised and upset many councillors.
Independent Cllr Ron Whittaker labelled the decision “sheer madness” and said Bournemouth council would be worse off for her departure.
He added: “I cannot believe that this council has taken such a stupid stance in the so-called organisation structure, to lose one of the most highly competent and respected officers.”
And Labour group leader Cllr Ben Grower said: “She has been an exceptional chief accountant.”
Bournemouth council has refused to confirm who will take on its Section 151 responsibilities, stating only that the chief executive has ensured that all obligations are met.
Every council is legally required to have a nominated Section 151 officer, who has to be a qualified accountant belonging to a recognised chartered accountancy body.
Cllr Grower said he be-lieved Mike Forrester, one of the leading officers be-hind the council’s outsourcing plans, was to take on the position temporarily.
He queried whether this was appropriate, given that the Section 151 officer would have to sign off the £20m outsourcing deal, and has requested the auditors’ opinion.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Roger West said he understood Ms Martin was critical of the outsourcing plans and questioned whether this was the reason behind her sudden departure.
A statement from chief executive Pam Donnellan said: “Recent changes to the council’s organisation structure have significantly reduced the role of service director for resources.
“Responsibilities for ICT, HR and payroll have transferred to other business units and this has led to a redundancy situation.
“Judith has made an enormous contribution to the running of the council during her years of service and her expertise has led directly to greatly improved fin-ancial management arran-gements for the council.”
Comments(29)
caz-caz
says...
11:02am Sat 31 Jul 10
Oldalbanian
says...
11:57am Sat 31 Jul 10
Now there's a contradiction in terms (perhaps even a classic oxymoron) if ever there was one.
A bigger collection of jobsworths and layabouts you would be hard pushed to find anywhere.
theworldsgonemad
says...
12:08pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Syd Poumen
says...
1:27pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Oldalbanian wrote:Oldalbanian
"Highly respected council official" Now there's a contradiction in terms (perhaps even a classic oxymoron) if ever there was one. A bigger collection of jobsworths and layabouts you would be hard pushed to find anywhere.
I would be interested to know whether you are a classic Oxymoron or Cammoron?
BmthNewshound
says...
1:49pm Sat 31 Jul 10
.
Whether an individual is highly respected or not should have no bearing on the decision to make the role redundant.
McVICAR
says...
2:43pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Well if her contribution led to the imax, surf reef and palm trees then we are all beter of without her
Mediclogan5
says...
2:56pm Sat 31 Jul 10
gr82bheard
says...
5:07pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Adrian Fudge
says...
6:09pm Sat 31 Jul 10
McVICAR wrote:Judith Martin would have no input into the any of the contracts you mention exept to ensure that the expenditure was properly accounted for within the Councils budget
“Judith has made an enormous contribution to the running of the council during her years of service and her expertise has led directly to greatly improved fin-ancial management arran-gements for the council.” Well if her contribution led to the imax, surf reef and palm trees then we are all beter of without her
The decisions whether or not those schemes went ahead were made by the Councillors on the advice of the relevant lead officers
Its a shame that you have to try and malaign someone who did an awfull lot to ensure that the financial control of Bournemouth Council was provided efficiently and that Councillors , of all parties, were kept fully informed on financial matters
Localsfirst
says...
6:17pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Now sack the rest of them.
But it's all too late.
Dorset is finished.
spyglass
says...
6:36pm Sat 31 Jul 10
McVICAR
says...
6:46pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Adrian Fudge wrote:I believe that any member of the council involved in financial running of council tax payers money should come under scrutiny, with the amount of our money thats wasted on schemes entered into by all members of the council that simply dont work is absolutly appalling.
McVICAR wrote:Judith Martin would have no input into the any of the contracts you mention exept to ensure that the expenditure was properly accounted for within the Councils budget
“Judith has made an enormous contribution to the running of the council during her years of service and her expertise has led directly to greatly improved fin-ancial management arran-gements for the council.” Well if her contribution led to the imax, surf reef and palm trees then we are all beter of without her
The decisions whether or not those schemes went ahead were made by the Councillors on the advice of the relevant lead officers
Its a shame that you have to try and malaign someone who did an awfull lot to ensure that the financial control of Bournemouth Council was provided efficiently and that Councillors , of all parties, were kept fully informed on financial matters
I like many others work dam hard for our wages to pay the exorbitant council tax set by this council only to see millions wasted, then we are told that painful cuts have to be made, so you should understand that some people will have not one ounce of sympathy with anyone connected to financial matters within the council when the cuts fall on their shoulders.
Its about time that all councillors and the financial wizzkids started to show some restraint with our money then perhaps they will gain our confidence.
I am not attempting to malaign anyone as you put it but from my side of the fence i'm afraid I can have no sympathy with her at all.
If money has to be saved then lets start at the top with people who are obviously not living in the real world.
RichmondWood
says...
7:12pm Sat 31 Jul 10
This was an officer decision, which from quotes from Cllrs Whittaker and Grower was not supported by the opposition parties. Did members of the current Cabinet, particularly Cllrs Charon and Beesley support this change?
The reason for her redundancy is given as that "responsibilities for ICT, HR and payroll have transferred to other business units", but her main responsibility as Section 151 Officer is not redundant. It is a statutory role and it should be made clear who the new s.151 officer is.
Could it be that Mike Forrester has taken on the role but only until he signs off on his own outsourcing report that Ms Martin was critical of?
The Seasider
says...
7:18pm Sat 31 Jul 10
.
What this all means, is that councils are going to have to face up to pretty savage budget cuts, which have already begun, and will get far worse. This all means job losses at the top level for many.
.
Whether they like it or not, mergers of councils eg. East Dorset & Christchurch, perhaps Bournemouth & Poole, etc. etc. as well as the merger of departments is probably going to be forced upon them by budget constraints. This is probably long overdue, and is the best way to keep front line staff, but reduce the number of chiefs.
.
Boscomite
says...
7:35pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Gordon Clifton
says...
7:38pm Sat 31 Jul 10
twobigdogs
says...
7:40pm Sat 31 Jul 10
High Treason
says...
8:03pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Mediclogan5 wrote:But not for Pam Donnellan who despite her huge salary and perks appears to do very little for the council tax payer.
The night of the Long Knives...Be afraid be very afraid.
winton50
says...
8:50pm Sat 31 Jul 10
caz-caz wrote:You clearly don't understand the issue. She was an accountant making sure that your money was not being spent illegally and ensuring that all the reporting and accounting requirements were being met.
could do with getting shot of a few more of these non-job leeches . to what degree was she involved in the surf reef,the purchase of the imax and all these nonsense scheme that this council has blown vast amounts of cash on - it all wants thinning down,too many people doing little work just so that everyones back is covered ! youve been found out - good riddance
She didn't decide where the money was being spent - the councillors did that.
At the point where she was asked to give her opinion on whether outsourcing was a good idea she was sacked.
Why do you think that was? Perhaps because she understood the issue clearly and knew it was a bad idea?
BIGTONE
says...
12:01am Sun 1 Aug 10
BIGTONE
says...
12:08am Sun 1 Aug 10
" Normally your job must have disappeared. It is not redundancy if your employer immediately takes on a direct replacement for you. But it will not matter if your employer is recruiting more workers for work of a different kind, or in another location (unless you were required by contract to move to the new location)."
RichmondWood
says...
12:46am Sun 1 Aug 10
http://www.bournemou
th.gov.uk/Constituti
on/Part4/FinFramewor
k/partIII/section_15
1_officer.asp
Number 6 "Ensuring that any partnership arrangements (or other innovative structures for service delivery) are underpinned by clear and well-documented internal financial controls."
Now read the minutes of the July 1 meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Management panel particularly pages C3 and C4
http://www.bournemou
th.gov.uk/Library/Co
mmittee_Meetings/Ove
rview_&_Scrutiny_Pan
els/O_&_S_Management
_Panel/Minutes/10070
5.pdf
It's clear that the S151 officer will play a very important role in providing information for councillors to make a decision about the incremental partnership. So why remove the current S151 officer who understands the complexities of the situation before the decision to proceed has been made?
gr82bheard
says...
1:34am Sun 1 Aug 10
Capt. Ahab (ret.)
says...
4:49pm Sun 1 Aug 10
winton50 wrote:Ahoy ‘winton50’
caz-caz wrote:You clearly don't understand the issue. She was an accountant making sure that your money was not being spent illegally and ensuring that all the reporting and accounting requirements were being met.
could do with getting shot of a few more of these non-job leeches . to what degree was she involved in the surf reef,the purchase of the imax and all these nonsense scheme that this council has blown vast amounts of cash on - it all wants thinning down,too many people doing little work just so that everyones back is covered ! youve been found out - good riddance
She didn't decide where the money was being spent - the councillors did that.
At the point where she was asked to give her opinion on whether outsourcing was a good idea she was sacked.
Why do you think that was? Perhaps because she understood the issue clearly and knew it was a bad idea?
Tis with agreement I reply to yer comment and it be blatantly obvious some of thy Brethrens emotions overcome (Peapods crews) common sense. Having misinterpreted, Ms Judith Martins responsibility as an accountant they now seek to compose a ‘mythical’ liability fer her actually ‘purchasing?’ It be thy PSHs duty to spend thy Brethrens gold pieces wisely, to thar benefit of ALL!! Her duty to be ‘accountable’ fer legal transactions. If she be a failing upon such an allegation then surely yet another of yer ‘trusted’ council servants be investigated.
Me crew are one of mind this Lady carried out her duties notwithstanding her ‘concerns’ regarding ‘outsourcing’ (costs?) thus perhaps being ‘beached’ a fore enough wind in her sails.
Corrupto
says...
7:17pm Sun 1 Aug 10
spyglass
says...
10:24pm Sun 1 Aug 10
Capt. Ahab (ret.)
says...
10:38am Mon 2 Aug 10
spyglass wrote:Ahoy ‘spyglass’
Once again Bournemouth Woman (or man) uses Echo articles on Bournemouth Council to accuse named officers - who are not in a position to respond - of bullying. This regular undercover onslaught is itself a prime example of bullying! I believe that Bournemouth Council has well established procedures to investigate and deal with bullying, why not use them and give those you accuse the ability to respond rather than delivering your own verdict at every opportunity?
Tis in right agreement I be with yer views, also I be pleased thy Echo removed the offending comments without disturbing other Brethrens points of view.
The tone of Bournemouth Woman’s opinion did strike me as very familiar to another Brethren who writes here, a different pseudonym or be it schizophrenia?? I can’t make me mind up.
honestgov
says...
7:47pm Wed 4 Aug 10
Does this actually mean that the financial implications of the Outsourcing Plans do not stack up? We deserve a full and frank disclosure of the financial implications before the Council commits us to another contract which possibly ends up costing us more than we are currently paying.
The outsourcing proposals should only go ahead if there are significant savings (e.g. at least 10% to 15% - after allowing for contract monitoring costs) to the Council throughout the whole life of the contract and we are guaranteed effective, efficient, quality services that meet the needs of the local community.
Thank goodness it is the local elections next year. That will be our opportunity to kick out the current administration and hopefully get rid of those Chief Officers who have not only failed the local community over recent years but also wasted our hard-earned money.
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plastic says...
10:38am Sat 31 Jul 10
So if it's working well why change it ?
Better to lose those with less expertise !!