By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
A new chief executive will be appointed by Powys County Council soon, with councillors due to interview two candidates next week for the £138,000 post.
Next Tuesday's full Council meeting is set to meet in private as members will have their say on who becomes the next chief executive.
Councillors will get the chance to quiz both candidates on how they will take the authority forward.
If the councillors are happy, they will decide by ballot which of the candidates will be offered the top job.
Whoever takes over the hot seat will be paid just over £138,000.
This is over £60,000 less than the last chief executive, Jeremy Patterson, received as an annual salary.
At the moment leadership of the workforce is in the hands of former Denbighshire County Council chief executive, Dr Mohammed Mehmet, who is the authority’s acting chief executive.
His role is to provide a strategic plan for the authority to follow. Dr Mehmet was given a nine-month contract when he took over the role in April, but is expected to stay in post until a successor can start.
Deputy chief executive David Powell runs the day to day business of the council and took over as an interim chief executive for a time.
The furore that surrounded the Children’s Services report in October 2017 saw calls made for Mr Patterson to resign. A few days later he was signed off as unfit to work.
In July, councillors met behind closed doors and agreed on a deal worth just under £181,500.
This included a compensatory lump sum worth £116,915 which was part of the deal to “mutually terminate” Mr Patterson’s contract on 30 September.
This allowed the authority to go ahead and seek his replacement.
