Row over new council chief sees two councillors quit key panel
TWO councillors have resigned from a key committee amid concerns over the appointment of the authority’s Chief Executive.
Anglesey Council unveil ed Annwen Morgan as its new head of paid service, who will step up from her role deputising Dr Gwynne Jones when he retires in October.
Mrs Morgan, who becomes the first woman to hold the post of Anglesey’s Chief Executive, was formally presented following meetings of the Appointments Panel and Full Council on Thursday.
But the decision has sparked the resignation of two members of the panel, who have expressed unhappiness over the appointment process, saying it appeared to be a “foregone conclusion”.
Cllr Peter Rogers, who has resigned along with his Annibynnwyr Môn group leader, Bryan Owen, raised concern that the process had not been “thorough enough.”
Mrs Morgan’s background in education, as a former headteacher at
Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern, was also called into question by Cllr Rogers.
He claimed the authority should have sought an appointee who had a “clear background in business.”
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The short turnaround and the speed at which the whole process took place suggests to me that it was a foregone conclusion all along.
“I have to question if the process was advertised extensively enough and if all efforts were made to seek the best person for the job.
“For years I’ve been raising the need for this authority to show some more business acumen and while I have nothing against Mrs Morgan personally, to have yet another Chief Executive whose background is in education is not the way forward in my view.”
A native of Anglesey, Mrs Morgan began her career with the authority in 1983 as a Welsh teacher at Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern, becoming the Head of the Welsh Language Department in 1994 and the school’s Head Teacher in 2007.
In January 2016 she was appointed as the council’s Assistant Chief Executive (Partnership and External Transformation), delivering projects relating to economic regeneration, school modernisation, community safety and the transformation of adult social services as well as the broader partnerships such as GwE and regional service initiatives.
She has also led strategically on the Welsh Language Strategy to promote its use within the council’s internal administration.
In response to Cllr Rogers’ comments, a spokesperson on behalf of the council said: “We can confirm Cllr Rogers did resign from the Appointments Panel Thursday (22nd August) morning and Cllr Bryan Owen shortly after. However, we are not aware of the reasoning behind their resignation.
“Every appointment follows the council’s recruitment process, which has been agreed by the Appointments Panel, ensuring that every appointment follows an objective procedure and complies fully to HR’s practices and guidelines.”
Cllr Rogers later denied allegations of sexism after being accused of “inappropriate” and “prehistoric” comments relating to the row.
Describing Cllr Rogers’ comments as “shameful”, in a Facebook post Cllr Nicola Roberts added: “The last two chief executives were also not from a business background, but obviously were of the correct sex! This prehistoric attitude needs to be stamped out once and for all!
“Why won’t the members step down completely instead of just from an unpaid panel?”
Cllr Rogers slammed Cllr Roberts’ allegations as “appalling.”
“As I made clear, I have nothing personal against Annwen Morgan but feel that we should, as a council, operate with more business sense,” he said. “I’m very disappointed that such allegations have been made against me, my feelings are not based on the new Chief Executive’s gender whatsoever.”