Top council officer moves over to new combined authority

Director of governance Kim Sawyer is now the monitoring officer at the combined authority until March while the organisation looks to recruit someone permanently. She was previously working two days a week at the combined authority.

The council will continue to pay her salary while she works at the combined authority, but in return the combined authority is paying for someone to take over her work at the council.

A council spokeswoman said: “During the secondment Kim’s role at Peterborough City Council will be covered by Stephen Gerrard who has joined the authority on an interim basis.

“Stephen’s salary will be covered by the combined authority so the city council incurs no extra costs. Stephen is an experienced monitoring officer and former corporate director of governance.”

John Harrison, council corporate director for resources, has been working two days a week as chief finance officer at the combined authority, but that arrangement will end so a full-time interim appointment can be made.

The chief finance officer role will cost £160,000 this financial year, including costs incurred by the employer such as pension contributions.

Total costs for the role of interim monitoring officer is expected to be £130,000 over the same period.