A Proposal to Reform Sheffield City Council's Elected Members' Allowances ========================================================================= Author: J.G.Harston Version: 1.10 Date: 11/06/2007 http://mdfs.net/User/JGH/Docs/Council/Pay/Reform **NOTE** Needs updating for current allowances and reference to SRA multipliers (cf Scarborough) instead of absolute amounts This Council: a) Shall modify the Members' Allowance Scheme to introduce an additional 'Band D' Special Responsibilty Allowance payable to all members such that they receive a 'Band D' Allowance for each and every Scrutiny, Planning and Licensing Board that they are a member of, to be set at Ł5,257 per annum, and shall adjust the Basic Allowance to be the same Ł5,257 per annum, and shall increase the Leader's and Cabinet Members' Special Responsibilty Allowance by the same Ł5,257 per annum; to be implemented to take effect in the salary payment month following this current one. --------------------------------------------------------------------- This would result in the following changes in Members' Allowances: Num Current Scheme Amended Scheme Allowance Total Allowance Total Leader+0 Boards 1 27,642.33 27,642.33 27,642.33 27,642.33 Cabinet+0 Boards 7 19,079.15 133,554.05 19,079.15 133,554.05 Chair Scrutiny+1 Board 2 17,594.86 35,189.72 22,849.91 45,699.82 Chair Scrutiny+0 Board 3 17,594.86 52,784.58 17,592.91 52,778.73 Leader Opposition+1 Board 1 17,594.86 17,594.86 17,592.91 17,592.91 Cabinet Advisor+2 Boards 5 15,482.61 77,413.05 20,737.66 103,688.30 Cabinet Advisor+1 Board 9 15,482.61 139,343.49 15,480.66 139,325.94 Shadow Cabinet+1 Board 8 15,482.61 123,860.88 15,480.66 123,845.28 Chair Planning+2 Boards 1 15,482.61 15,482.61 25,994.66 25,994.66 Chair Planning+1 Board 1 15,482.61 15,482.61 20,737.66 20,737.66 Chair Licensing+0 Boards 1 15,482.61 15,482.61 15,480.66 15,480.66 Deputy Licensing+0 Boards 1 13,370.35 13,370.35 13,368.40 13,368.40 Shadow Assistant+0 Boards 1 13,370.35 13,370.35 8,111.40 8,111.40 Chair Area Panel+3 Boards 2 13,370.35 26,740.70 23,882.40 47,764.80 Chair Area Panel+2 Boards 1 13,370.35 13,370.35 18,625.40 18,625.40 Chair Area Panel+1 Board 4 13,370.35 53,481.40 13,368.40 53,473.60 3 Boards 1 10,515.95 10.515.95 21,028.00 21,028.00 2 Boards 6 10,515.95 63,095.70 15,771.00 94,626.00 1 Board 24 10,515.95 252,382.80 10,514.00 252.336.00 0 Boards 5 10,515.95 52,579.75 5,257.00 26,285.00 TOTAL 84 1,138,738.10 1,241,958.90 --------------------------------------------------------------------- This would result in the following Schedule of Allowances: Basic Allowance - payable to all Members 5,257.00 pa Special Responsibilty Allowance payable in relation to the following duties: Leader 22,383.38 pa Band A 13,820.20 pa Cabinet Members Deputy Leader Band B1 7,078.91 pa Scrutiny Board Chair Leader of largest Opposition group Band B2 4,966.66 pa Cabinet Advisors Shadow Cabinet Members Chairs of Planning and Highways Boards Chair of Licensing Board Band C 2,854.40 pa Chairs of Area Panels Shadow Cabinet Assistants Deputy Chair Liceinsg Board Band D 5,257.00 pa Membership of Scrutiny and Planning Boards --------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Budgeted Allowances Scheme Num Allowance Total Leader 1 27,642.33 27,642.33 Cabinet 7 19,079.15 133,554.05 Chair Scrutiny 5 17,594.86 87,974.30 Leader Opposition 1 17,594.86 17,594.86 Cabinet Advisor 14 15,482.61 216,756.54 Shadow Cabinet 8 15,482.61 123,860.88 Chair Planning/Licensing 3 15,482.61 46,447.83 Deputy Licensing 1 13,370.35 13,370.35 Shadow Assistant 2 13,370.35 26,740.70 Chair Area Panel 12 13,370.35 160,444.20 Basic only 30 10,515.95 315,478.50 Total 84 1,169,864.50 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Commentary ---------- This is a simple change to move the Members' Allowance Scheme closer towards recompensing Elected members more closely for the value of the work provided for the Council. At the moment, all elected members are paid a base allowance. Some members are paid an additional allowance for specific posts such as chairs of major bodies, opposition spokespeople and cabinet assistants. An implicit assumption that arises out of paying all members the same base allowance is that all members perform work of the same value to the council for the work they do other than for those posts with a specific additional payment. This is a comparison of work done by non-executive elected members based on the number of major council bodies they sit on. For this comparision, the major council bodies are those where chairing it receives a additional payment, viz: Statutory Boards and Scrutiny Boards. Statutory Boards (eg Planning) perform the important quasi-legal functions of the council, and the Scrutiny Boards examine the executive. All members are a member of an Area Panel that covers their ward by virtue of them being elected members, so all members do start from a base membership of one other body. Elected Members Membership of Council Bodies, all Political Groups ------------------------------------------------------------------ Bodies Number 3 : 3 *** 2+Chair/SA : 6 ****** 2 : 6 ****** 1+Chair/SA : 11 *********** 1+Deputy+OppSpokes : 1 * 1+Deputy/OppSpokes : 7 ******* 1+OppLeader : 1 * 1 : 27 *************************** 0+Chair/SA : 4 **** 0+Deputy+SA : 1 * 0+Deputy+OppSpokes : 1 * 0+Deputy/OppSpokes : 3 *** 0 : 5 ***** Posts such as Chairs, etc. receive an additional payment, so the following table shows workload that by implication is paid for by the base allowance that all councillors receive, not that work that by implication is paid for by the additional allowances. Elected Members Membership of Council Bodies, all Political Groups ------------------------------------------------------------------ Bodies Number 3 : 9 ********* 2 : 25 ************************* 1 : 37 ************************************* 0 : 5 ***** This table shows that there are 25 members whose work is effectively valued at half the worth of 37 other members. There are 9 members whose work is effectively valued at a third the worth of 37 other members. There are 5 members who effectively get paid for providing nothing of value to the council by the measure used in this comparison. Most elected members only serve on one body. Over 90% of members serve on between one and three bodies, but that does not lead to the assumption that the majority of members serve on the average of two bodies. Almost two thirds of members do not serve on the average of two bodies. It follows that the majority of members are either being overcompensated or undercompensated for the service they provide. There is an accepted principle in place that being a Chair of a major body warrants additional compensation. Does that principle not also imply that being a working member of three bodies warrants greater compensation that being a working member of only one body? If it is a competant use of the public purse to compensate different members identically for different provisions of service to the public, then this implies that the additional service provided by being a Chair of a council body should not receive additional compensation. Proposal -------- A scheme of compensation to elected members should be set up that pays a small basic portion with an additional component for the number of major council bodies that member is a working member of. So, an elected member who worked on only one major council body would receive base+1*extra and an elected member who worked on four major bodies would receive base+4*extra. In this manner members would be more closely compensated for the service they provide to the public purse. Flaws in this analysis ---------------------- This is purely a comparative analysis comparing workload of elected members based on their membership of the major council bodies. It does not attempt to take into account members' workload and contribution to the public good derived from activities outside these bodies. There is likely to be some correlation between the outside workload an elected member can take on and the in-council workload they can take on. If a member has the time and ability to work on four major council bodies, there is a probability that they have the time and ability to take on a higher amount of ward-based work than a colleague on only one major council body. This study has used the term "Major Bodies" to refer to those bodies of the City Council where the Chair receives a Special Responsibility Allowance. This comparison does not count members' membership of Area Panels. All elected members are automatically a member of the Area Panel of the area they are elected within. If this comparison included Area Panel membership this would just change the row labels of the tables from a range of 0 to 5 to a range of 1 to 6. There are a small number of members who sit on two Area Panels, and this would modify the precise shape of the distribution, but the overall trend would remain the same. Version History --------------- 11-Jun-2007: Updated with 2006-2007 figures. 22-Feb-2005: Updated with 2004-2005 figures. 18-Jan-2002: Updated with 2001-2002 figures. Notes ----- 24-Mar-2007: Harrogate Council actually uses a system very similar to this. All Planning and Licensing members receive an SRA. I will update the commentary to note this.