Labour seek answers over sudden departure of Harlow Council’s Chief Executive
News / Fri 29th Jul 2022 at 02:22pm
THE LEADER of Harlow Labour are seeking answers over the sudden departure of the chief executive of Harlow Council, Brian Keane.
Councillor Chris Vince said: “I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Brian Keane for his time as Chief Executive of Harlow Council.
Both during my time in administration and as leader of the opposition, I have found that Brian was someone whose door was always open. I wish him all the best for his retirement and will do what I can to support Simon Freeman and the interim Chief Executive in their role once they are appointed.
This is a challenging time for the council and at last night’s full council the Labour Group wished to ask this urgent question: ‘The sudden and unexpected departure yesterday of the Chief Executive of Harlow Council raises a number of questions to which residents and fellow Councillors require answers.
“Will Cllr Perrin please explain why Mr Keane has been allowed to leave without serving a period of notice, who sanctioned it and what are the financial implications of this action?’
“We were informed by the chair of the council that this was not considered an urgent question, and we respect his decision. However, the question we wished to present and further questions do need answering.
“The residents of Harlow and the Labour group deserve and expect a full and frank answer from the administration on the circumstances and implications of the Chief Executive’s departure without delay”.
Theman
2022-07-29 17:24:53
Am I the only one who finds this odd. Surely if you are a councillor you would know what is happening with the executive officers running the council for you, regardless of the party you represent. Maybe because this is politics, common sense does not apply!
Rebecca Thomson
2022-07-29 18:13:57
Surely the Leader of the Opposition would have been informed. This just sounds like a typical Chris Vince sound bite and intrigue to conceal the fact that Harlow Labour has no plans or ideas about anything. Just smokescreens to try to appear relevant.
Nostradamus
2022-07-29 19:24:39
It's a valid question that the public, let alone politicians, quite reasonably should expect an answer. Local government needs to be open a transparent. Yes, Theman, your lack of concern does make you odd and RT, the guy is a public servant paid out of our taxes, and if legally appropriate the public need to know. It's not a party issue.
Chris Vince
2022-07-29 19:45:52
Hi all, the leader of the council informed me he had left the day after it happened and that there would be a public statement, which there was. However, I think it's a legitimate question to ask why no notice period was expected and what the financial implications are to the council, whether they are positive or negative or non existent. I also believe this is something that should be answered in a public meeting and not behind closed doors. I have no interest in 'sound bites' and whether I am relevant or not is in fact irrelevant but as the opposition we should be asking these sort of questions and expecting answers.
Steve
2022-07-29 20:43:29
I have been asking Brian Keane, Russel Perrin and Simon Hill to look at my problem with Councilor Nick Churchill and his misuse of my personal data . The way he got it, and used it. And the treats of Harlow Council to take me to court .
Marie Compton
2022-07-29 20:57:58
Mr Vince didn’t you ask these questions when the Leader of the Council informed you? It seems you just want to make an appearance. How come you don’t know his contractual terms, as it was your previous Labour administration who employed him? However, what you should be asking is during the 9 years ( most of which were under Labour’s watch) that Mr Keane was CEO appointed by Labour, what was his performance? What benchmarking did you judge him against, which other councils did you compare him against? Looking at the state of Harlow it arguable that he was never seriously challenged by the former Labour administration, which a poor reflection on your Party. This might be a good opportunity to appoint somebody far more enterprising and dynamic.
David Forman
2022-07-29 21:59:16
The Opposition party are normally involved in the appraisal of the council's CEO. Under the Labour administration during Jon Clempner's time as leader, Andrew Johnson was involved in appraising Malcolm Morley. So, which Labour councillor helped Johnson or Russell Perrin to appraise Brian Keane?
David
2022-07-30 06:05:04
Perfectly good question to ask publicly to know why a Chief Exec leaves especially when we’re told of record breaking public and affordable housing when it was a complete lie.
Kay Morrison
2022-07-30 06:13:07
A contributor (above) suggests that performance is the explanation for the CEO's departure. Is that the case? If so, how has that information been obtained? Let's have more of it and more transparency. Public money is involved and accountability required. Whataboutery doesn't help: it's usually an attempt to distract. We don't have answers to Cllr Vince's questions.
Marie Compton
2022-07-30 06:45:48
Kay Morrison, you obviously didn’t read the first part of my comment. Labour hired the former CEO so they know the terms of his contract. Secondly, why didn’t Cllr Vince ask his questions when he was informed by the Council Leader?
Tony Durcan
2022-07-30 07:54:05
Who is Marie Compton and how does this person know so much about the process and detail. Either someone is leaking information from the current Tory team or this is yet another pathetic attempt by the Tory MP to manage the story and blame someone else. Let’s be honest the council is now run by the Tory MP office at Westminster anyway. The question is did the Tories push him out and if so how much public money was used to achieve this outcome. what service budget has been used to hide it and what will be lost as a service to protect this secret. Brian was a brilliant CEO he managed with courage and fortitude.He was calm and kind to all.Spoke with passion and compassion about Harlow. Well liked and well respected. A quiet man who made many new friends to help Harlow develop and grow . We will only realise what he had achieved now he is no longer around. A huge and very early loss to Harlow. As all staff, he had his yearly appraisal and regardless of politics we all respected him as our CEO. So we need to know how much was spent to enable this to happen and how much will be spent for an interim and then a substantive CEO. Will Harlow want to share a CEO with a neighbouring council or county council as suggested by the Tories last time. It appears Marie can tell us what the MP wants. Thank you
David Forman
2022-07-30 23:07:09
I like a lot of what Tony Durcan said above, but I think he went a bit off the rails with this sentence: "Let’s be honest the council is now run by the Tory MP office at Westminster anyway."
Tom Evans
2022-07-31 13:26:25
Both Cllrs Morrison and Durcan have a strange style of asking or inferring a question and without evidence or substantiation and then go on to to draw fantastic conclusions (usually hinting at some imagined conspiracy or subterfuge) as if it were factual and true. It does reveal a somewhat stunted intellect; quite immature to be honest. Surprised how they ever get elected. I suppose that very low turnout might explain it.
Peter
2022-07-31 23:23:36
Pity Tony Durcan didn't show as much compassion and praise when his party hounded out several long serving and good local councillors and allowed Momentum to hijack his party
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