Mayor's Communications
Minutes:
Election of New Councillors
The Mayor congratulated all the Councillors who were re-elected to office following the Local Government Elections held on 2 May 2019, and extended a warm welcome to the following 8 new Councillors elected to office:
Maria Bennett, Leo Evans, Sean Halsall, Christine Howard, David Irving, Greg Myers, Yaso Sathiy, and Carran Waterfield.
Councillors Not Re-Elected
The Mayor reported that she wished to place on record, the gratitude of the Council to the 3 former Councillors who were not re-elected to office, namely Harry Bliss and Simon Jamieson who both served for 4 years and Catie Page who served for 8 years, and on behalf of the Council, thanked them for their dedicated service to the people of Sefton.
Annual Council and Installation Dinner
The Mayor thanked all the Councillors who attended her Installation Ceremony and Dinner on 14 May 2019 and expressed the hope that they all enjoyed themselves.
Retirement of Margaret Carney, Chief Executive
The Mayor reported that this would be the last Council meeting that Margaret Carney, the Chief Executive would be attending before she retired on 31 May 2019 after 10 years’ service with Sefton Council and a career in Local Government spanning over 40 years.
The Mayor indicated that:
Margaret had started her career in 1979 working in various financial roles at Knowsley Council and Warrington Council, after passing the examinations to become a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy before she moved up to a Strategic Director post at Warrington Council in 2002. In March 2004, she moved to Rochdale Council to become an Executive Director and then in January 2009, she commenced her post as Chief Executive of Sefton Council.
Margaret’s achievements as Sefton’s Chief Executive are many and far too great to list. Her community focused leadership and approach to partnership working had further galvanised the commitment and enthusiasm of partners locally. This, for example, had brought about New Realities and a genuine sense of shared ownership of Sefton Vision 2030. Margaret was well respected by colleagues in the Liverpool City Region, especially for the key role she has played as lead officer for health, wellbeing and social care.
Margaret’s expertise in financial management had seen the Council successfully balance the books over the last ten years. During this difficult era, she had never once lost sight of the community, their needs and has been truly ambitious for Sefton people and the Council throughout this time. Many of these achievements have recently been recognised through the LGA Peer Review.
Through her leadership we had adopted a One Council, One Sefton approach and Margaret should quite rightly be proud of the hardworking, committed and passionate workforce, Councillors and partners over probably the most challenging period ever for Local Government and public services and she never misses an opportunity to share our many achievements. All of this was driven by her passion to truly put local people at the heart of everything we do.
Margaret will ... view the full minutes text for item 10