SSDC appoints (or not)
South Somerset District Council has been trying to find replacements for its most senior finance (s151) and legal (Monitoring) officers. This follows the resignation of both the current officers two months ago.
Oh dear
The search for a Monitoring Officer is not going well. The first advert went out in September and produced insufficient applicants to run a recruitment process.
Undeterred they tried again in October and this time shortlisted 4 applicants. However the final interview stage completed in November was not a success. The Appointments Committee advised by the Chief Executive (Alex Parmley) made the decision not to appoint either candidate to the role.
The decision has been made to go back out to recruitment again in early 2020.
Meantime the council must appoint a Monitoring Officer which cannot be either the Chief Executive nor the S151 officer.
Better news
But there is better news with the s151 officer (this is the equivalent of a Finance Director in a commercial organisation). A candidate has been chosen after a rigorous selection process and it is a candidate with a lot of experience in the role already.
Inevitably the candidate has a notice period to serve and cannot join SSDC until March. In between times Nicola Hix (who is currently the Deputy s151 Officer) is expected to be selected to act as Interim s151 Officer