Third local government expert to be appointed by TVCA

'Trouble-shooter' Jeanette McGarry will be paid £102,600 for her six month tenure at TVCA

Good morning and welcome to the latest edition of The Teesside Lead,

Is it rearranging the furniture on the Titanic, or is there a real sea change coming at TVCA? The authority is about to appoint another expert to help bring in the changes to culture and governance.

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Leigh

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Tees Valley Combined Authority (Image: Leigh Jones).

Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) is hiring a third temporary consultant as it continues its efforts to improve governance and culture.

TVCA’s Cabinet has been advised to approve the appointment of Jeanette McGarry to the role of Interim Monitoring Officer - the authority’s top legal position. She will be taking over from Jodie Townsend, who was appointed to the interim position just six months ago, but will now continue working for TVCA as a consultant.

According to papers for Friday’s Cabinet meeting, the recruitment will “result in increased capacity to continue to implement the governance improvement work at pace and ensure continuity.”

Mr Townsend was appointed as top legal officer and Jo Moore as interim finance director following the sudden departures of Emma Simson and Gary Macdonald respectively from those roles last year.

Both were in their roles during the Tees Valley Review’s investigation and the time period that auditors have refused to sign off on the authority’s accounts for, saying they “considered there to be a reasonable probability that material misstatement exists, potentially in multiple regards”.

Jeanette McGarry is another local authority trouble-shooter whose CV has seen her travel the country over a number of years to steady ships and fix relationships and working cultures at local councils.

If appointed, she’ll be paid £102,600 for her six month tenure at TVCA, although she’ll be responsible for her own national insurance and pension contributions.

TVCA says this is a reduction of £45,630 compared to what it was due to pay Jodie Townsend over that time. However, Townsend will still receive that amount for his continued work as a consultant.

One of the key requests from TVCA chief executive was that McGarry spends most of her time working at TVCA’s offices.

A spokesperson for TVCA told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “A recommendation to approve the appointment of Jeanette McGarry – an experienced local government officer – to the role of interim monitoring officer for up to six months will be voted on by TVCA Cabinet on January 30. This new arrangement will increase capacity on the governance improvement work while a permanent appointment is selected.

“Jodie Townsend has stood down as interim monitoring officer but will remain in a consultancy role working with the combined authority to support its continued governance improvements. Retaining Jodie in a consultant role will also ensure continuity and a smooth transition to the new interim monitoring officer appointment.”

Job ads for the full time roles for Monitoring Officer and Finance Director have been shared by TVCA, with salaries of £120,000 and £132,234, respectively. The roles are expected to be appointed by the end of March.