Ealing’s Chief Executive Officer Designate a résumé of his previous appointments
Tony Clements’ return to Ealing as its new CEO - to be confirmed at the April 19thFull Council meeting - has triggered some comment. As our ‘strategic director of Place’ for just 2 years, he took with him a handy £74,000 ‘compensation for loss of office’. Since his post was not abolished this must surely signify a falling out with his Council bosses. Happily, for Tony, he didn’t have to survive too long on his pay-out as the next month he was snapped up by LB Hammersmith as their interim strategic director (Economy), where he remained for just over a year followed by a series of portfolio contracts, before appearing on the candidates list for the position of Ealing’s Chief Executive. This is unusual as most employers, when a person receives a golden handshake, make it conditional that they do not seek employment with the said employer for a given period of time, for example five years.When a local authority realises that it has made a mistake with a chief officer appointment, or there has been a falling out with politicians (and neither of these are unusual) the solution is to restructure and delete the post, thereby creating a 'genuine' redundancy and avoiding expensive compensation for loss of office. This was not the case in this instance. Lucy Taylor currently fills this role, following on from Gary Alderson who also only remained in the role for 12 months.Tony Clements’ CV does not show experience of managing a large organisation let alone a London Borough. Once senior local government people start working as interims or take on jobs outside local government at the sort of age that Tony is, this often suggests some past problems. This may be very unfair, but if you had been a success as an 'executive director' in the period up until 2020 you would have found a CE post (perhaps outside London) if you were committed to staying in local government. Life at top level in local government is very demanding of any other life than at the Town Hall. Not a role to take on for a couple of years as part of a career trajectory.Ealing needs a strong Chief Executive, with a strong person management background and also willing to take on elected members if and when the council strays into questionable legal territory such as the non-production of statutory reports.You may wish to ask your current Ward Councillors why him?
Libby Kemp ● 741d2 Comments