Two people will share one of the council’s top jobs on an interim basis while the search begins for a £125,000-a-year permanent recruit.
Brighton and Hove City Council chief executive Geoff Raw sent a message to staff on Thursday (14 April) about the job of executive director for economy, environment and culture.
The post became vacant when Nick Hibberd took up a new job at Croydon council in south London.
It includes responsibilities that range from the regeneration of the seafront and the city’s sports facilities through tourism and transport to the quality of the air that we breathe.
Mr Raw said: “I’m pleased to let you know that for the next six months, Donna Chisholm, our assistant director for culture, tourism and sport, and Tom McCourt, an external interim candidate, will be sharing the ‘executive director – economy, environment and culture’ role.
“Donna will lead on culture tourism and sport, city development and regeneration and property and design, and Tom will lead on city environment and transport.
“Donna and Tom will start in post on (Monday) 25 April.
“We’re now planning the process of filling the executive director vacancy on a permanent basis.”
But not everyone welcomed the council’s approach, with a number of key projects stalled or progressing slowly, including those involving the Brighton Centre, the King Alfred Leisure Centre and the Madeira Terraces.
Bridget Fishleigh, Brighton and Hove’s only elected independent councillor, said: “I hope that the council will widen the net in its search for a permanent replacement for Nick Hibberd.
“From their LinkedIn profiles, it seems that these interim appointees have absolutely no private sector experience whatsoever.
“Being part of an incestuous public sector merry-go-round has done our city no good. I’m mighty fed up with the incompetence and ‘just say no’ approach.
“I’d like to see this crucial senior-level strategic position filled by someone with a breadth of experience across the commercial world as well as the public sector – someone with a life outside of the town hall bubble, with the ability to bring in hundreds of millions of pounds in investment and create the conditions for economic growth in the city.”
Mr Raw added: “I’m delighted that we’re offering this opportunity to Donna, who I know will make the very most of it and lead the directorate strongly, openly and strategically.
“I’m confident too that Tom will be a fantastic interim executive director.
“Tom has worked at chief officer level at a number of London local authorities in environment directorates and recently led on the strategic vision and guidance for the declared climate emergency for Newham Council with regard to environment, traffic, transport, air quality and sustainability. He brings a wealth of experience to this interim role.
“Both Tom and Donna will sit on the Executive Leadership Team bringing a fresh outlook which I and the executive directors always welcome.”
Sounds like Cllr Fishleigh is applying for the job.
Having one unelected executive director overseeing our economy, environment and culture being paid £125,000 is wrong. The job should be split into 3 roles and 3 experienced, independent individuals with an interest and track record in each sector be hired. Having interim officers is just wasting money and delaying projects. The Greens are looking for someone to continue Mr. Hibbert’s destructive policies. Croydon you do not know what you have let yourself in for – you think Croydon is bad now well wait until Mr. Hibbert has been let loose on your cityscape.
I think you do Nick Hibberd a disservice. I don’t like all the things he was ultimately responsible for, like the mess they’ve made of Valley Gardens (to be made worse by getting rid of the roundabout by the pier). Some of it, though, was a necessary compromise, like the purpose-built student housing on and off campus. It’s not easy on the eye, but it serves a purpose. He also deserves credit for sorting out the Planning Dept, which deterred too many sensible developers for too long, meaning we were more likely to have chancers and second-raters taking their chances here, while decent developers went elsewhere.
His departure does make now a good time to look at the structure of his unwieldy portfolio of responsibilities, and how the different tasks are managed. This ought to be done quickly, and the new person should have a track record of attracting inward investment (finance and infrastructure) or successfully incubating SMEs and, of course, of driving economic and jobs growth.