£197,000 pay is fair says council boss Katherine Kerswell
The chief executive of Northamptonshire County Council has defended her £197,000 wage, claiming residents who criticise her pay do not realise how big her job is.
Katherine Kerswell, who took on the top job at County Hall in 2007, last week revealed she earned 197,136 a year and claimed 3,173 in expenses between April and November last year.
News of the six-figure wage has been condemned by many county residents who labelled the fee "outrageous" and called on the chief executive to pay back her 3,000 expenses claim.
One Chron reader, who said her 'blood was boiling' after hearing the news, said: "I'm speechless, is this what my council tax is paying for? I was under the somewhat bizarre assumption it was used to pay for services and not over inflated wage bills, How on earth can this woman justify taking so much money?"
Another added: "And to think the Tories on the county council are telling us they have to cut their cloth accordingly, and reduce services by helping us to help ourselves.
"Well someone has been helping themselves quite nicely from where I'm viewing County Hall."
But Mrs Kerswell defended her wage, saying it was comparable to the chief executives of other county councils and top business people, such as the chief executive of Northampton-based Barclaycard.
She said: "The issue I think is people don't really understand what we do in local government.
"So we're trying to say to people, these are really significant roles. At the county council we employ 21,000 people and I'm responsible for a gross budget of 1 billion.
"We also manage a 1 billion pension fund and we have a 500 million capital programme.
"So this is a serious, significant organisation."
The council chief also revealed neither she nor the council's other top executives would be receiving a pay rise either this year or next year.
But she refused to take up some residents' suggestions that she should pay back expenses claims for such things as train trips and car parking, adding: "Expenses claims are for money I've paid out of my own pocket to do my job, it's not extra earnings."
Adding that she 'welcomed the debate' on her wage, she also argued the figure was not high if it was spread across the county's 685,000 residents.
She said: "It may look an enormous figure. But if you look at how much it costs each resident, it's 29 pence a year.
"And it's by no means the highest in local government."
Mrs Kerswell took over the top job at County Hall following the departure of former chief executive Peter Gould.
He left the authority at a time when he was on a salary of 215,000 a year. He also secured a reported pension of 97,000 a year and a 291,000 pay-off on his departure.
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