Two of the most senior officials at Brighton and Hove City Council have left as part of a cost-cutting shake up.
At the same time, new chief executive Jess Gibbons, 44, has taken over from Will Tuckley, 64, who served as an interim after previous chief executive Geoff Raw, 61, left for another job last May.
The senior officials to go are Rob Persey, 60, who served as executive director for health and adult social care for seven years, and Rachel Sharpe, also 60.
She joined the council as executive director for housing, neighbourhoods and communities almost four years ago, initially as an interim.
The departments that they ran are being merged and the council is to recruit a new senior official to replace the two executive directors who were paid about £130,000 a year.
Ms Gibbons said on her first day in post on Monday (18 March): “I am very excited to be the council’s chief executive and to work with our staff, partners and councillors.
“I can’t wait to build on the good work and continue to address the challenges I know our communities and residents are facing and that we’re facing as a council.”
She joined from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council where she was the chief operations officer, responsible for services including environment, infrastructure, regeneration, customer, arts and property, planning and destination and commercial operations.
She was previously director for communities and neighbourhoods with Wiltshire Council and director of community services at the London Borough of Camden Council.
Ms Gibbons said: “I will bring my knowledge and experience of working across the private, voluntary and local government sectors to the role and will drive forward the council’s plan to be a proud, healthy, fair and inclusive city for everyone.
“I’m a strong, determined and hard-working individual who is looking forward to working with council staff, residents, communities and businesses to ensure a better Brighton and Hove for all.”
She plans to move to Brighton and Hove from Wiltshire and to buy a flat here.
Council leader Bella Sankey said: “I’m delighted that Jess has started at such a crucial time for the council and the city.
“We’ve been able to set a balanced budget for next year and are in the process of redesigning how we work and how we are organised to become more responsive to residents and to improve the quality of our services.
“Jess’s wealth of experience in both a big city environment like Camden and also a seaside location like Bournemouth will prove invaluable in driving all these changes forward.
“Everyone at the council, including myself, the political leadership and staff at the council are very much looking forward to working with her.”
Mr Tuckley is to become the interim chief executive of Slough Borough Council. His appointment was announced today (Friday 22 March).
The council has been run by government-appointed “best value commissioners” since December 2021.
Before becoming the interim chief executive of Brighton and Hove City Council last May, Mr Tuckley was the chief executive at Tower Hamlets Council between 2015 and 2023 and chief executive at the London Borough of Bexley Council between 2008 and 2015.
He is due to take up his new post at Slough in mid-April, taking over from Stephen Brown who announced his departure last week after two years in the role.
Councillor Dexter Smith, the Conservative leader of Slough Borough Council, said: “I am delighted to welcome Will to our council as interim chief executive and I look forward to working closely with him.
“There remains much to do on our improvement journey, and this appointment is important in ensuring our organisation has the officer leadership we need.”
Mr Tuckley said: “I’m looking forward to getting to grips with what must be one of the most important roles in local government at the moment.
“I’m excited to meet and work with commissioners, colleagues, members and partners across the borough once I get started.
“Slough Borough Council faces well-documented challenges and I will commit to providing the leadership required until a permanent appointment is made.”
Lead commissioner Gavin Jones said: “Will brings a wealth of experience and will ensure the focus on the improvement required is maintained while we recruit a permanent chief executive for the council.”
Yet the Head of Transport remains. Clearly in BHCC you are rewarded for failure
I dont see the point of Chief Executive , they seem to be non accountable. The residents have no idea what they do, how to contact them or how they are worthy of mouth watering salaries , that all councils can ill afford at this moment in time
I do. Having a good CEO makes all the difference. They aren’t really there for residents to access though, so I can see why you feel like that.
Name one good CEO we’ve had. I can’t think of one. Put them on performance-related pay and see how hard they start to work for their money then.
I can think of several CEOs. I could name a few, but you wouldn’t know them. As for BHCC, i haven’t worked with any of them, so it would be disingenuous of me to say either way about them specifically.
No idea how to contact them?
How about by sending a letter to the town hall addreesed to her or send her an email!
The Chief Executive is accoutable to Councillors.
Left of their own choice or been made redudant? Big difference. Did either collect a golden goodbye on the way out? Did Will Tuckley?
If your job has been made redundant then you are entitled to redundancy pay.
Will Tuckley resigned and got another job. People who resign to go to another job don’t get ‘good by’ payments.
I am not talking about statutory redundancy pay as well you know. This article does not even say they were made redundant or make the distinction between chooseing to leave or redundancy as per my previous comment. Plus they could well have had it written into their contracts that they get a pay off when they leave, whatever the reason. Top paid staff often do. Except this is a council, not a corporation, so this information needs to be in the public domain if it’s related to public servants.
It won’t be in the public domain, because it’s commercially sensitive. That’s a pretty standard rejection of an FOI. Give it try, I am certain that will be the response you get!
Excellent decisions here around changing the top CEO’s, the payoff will be a lot. So hoping for someone amazing to replace em who reforms in the bottom up way.
*Executive Officers Rather
Sharpe was never your favourite, was she, Daniel?
Well some of these people may not be just leaving because of cost cutting measures there is a lot of other issues going on that the residents are not aware of particularly the amount of money the council is using to cover up complaints and auto the truth of what actually happens within Brighton and Hove city council’s offices everyone thought city clean was an issue there’s a lot more yet to come out related to all other departments in the council. This is not a hidden secret within the council Bella Sankey Ann everyone is clearly aware of everything and they have been actively involved in keeping this covered up along with the complaints department and its whole process is there anyone in Brighton heights that has made a complaint you will pretty much get your complaint not upheld unless it’s something very minor. There are major scandals that will be coming out over the next few months related to how officers have been behaving within Brighton and Hove City Council hopefully some of the news outlets will pick up on it. At least one of the people in the list above who is heavily involved in hiding up where officers had broken the code of conduct within the council and because they are aware the complaint system will only put out what they want they’re guaranteed to always get away with it.
CEO? Is that the posh name for what used to be the Town Clerk?
Brighton operates under a different administrative structure. It may not have a Town Clerk per se, but it does have administrative officers and departments responsible for similar functions within the framework of the Brighton and Hove City Council.
Unless you’re specifically asking what a CEO is, that’s a Chief Executive Officer, who serves as the head of a council’s administrative staff. They provide strategic leadership and direction, implementing policies and decisions set by the Ward Councillors.