Dissent emerged amid a vote to push the pay of Devon’s fire chief over the £200,000 mark amid potential wider forthcoming reforms of remuneration across the service.
The debate was sparked because supporters felt the current level of pay had become too low compared to an established metric that guides the pay of Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service’s most senior officer.
The pay of the fire service chief is supposed to sit at a ratio of 5:1 against median basic pay, but had fallen to 4.8:1.
Supporters also pointed to data that showed the pay of its chief lagging behind some of its peers with similarly large and rural areas.
But some opposition emerged, with detractors feeling that the pay of Devon’s chief shouldn’t be influenced by that of other fire services, and that Mr Ellis’s salary of just over £194,000 already rose annually.
The issue was debated at the Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority, the body made up of councillors from Devon and Somerset that oversees the fire service.
Mr Ellis has no involvement in the setting of his pay, which is ultimately decided by the authority and will now rise to £201,790.
The decision also means the pay of other executive board members will increase because they are paid percentages of the chief fire officer pay depending on their role and seniority.
Estimates put the cost in-year at £38,000 excluding employer’s national insurance and pension contributions.
The fire authority meeting heard about the rationale for a rise from external body, South West Councils, which is conducting a wide-ranging review of remuneration across the service – including establishing how to fairly pay operational and non-operational staff at the same seniority levels.
Councillor Thomas Richardson (Green Party, St Sidwells & St James), Councillor Julian Brazil (Liberal Democrat, Kingsbridge), the leader of Devon County Council, and Councillor James Buczkowski (Liberal Democrat, Cullompton) flagged concerns.
“I do take issue with looking at the salary as a golden ticket,” said Cllr Richardson.
“I’m not being naive to the arguments, but there are so many operational colleagues that would look at the role and aspire to it, and salary would not be the be all and end all.
“And in terms of attracting talent to the South West, I would hope the financial element isn’t the sole thing that attracts people here.”
Cllr Brazil told the meeting he “shares Cllr Thomas’s concerns” and that the idea of attracting the right person to the role in future was a “red herring”.
“If the chief fire officer post becomes available, then we advertise for a new one and at that stage we would be happy to set a salary that we see fit,” he said.
“The chief fire officer joined at a particular salary, it is increased each year, so we should stick to that as any increases over the top of that are unnecessary.”
His Lib Dem colleague, Cllr Buczkowski, who is the cabinet member for finance at Devon County Council, questioned how such a rise would be paid for, given the proposal included backdating the elevated salary to April and yet it hadn’t been included in this financial year’s budget.
“What do we have to cut to be able to afford it,” he asked, stating that he believed the 5:1 ratio should be a limit rather than a target to hit.
He requested that a report be brought back to the next authority meeting to explain how the increased salary would be paid for.
“I haven’t heard how this will be funded in-year, and so now we have an unbalanced budget,” he added.
“I want to see a report back to the authority of how it will fund the decision it has just made as it is currently unfunded.”
The meeting agreed to bring such a report back in December.
Somerset member Councillor Tim Kerley said he had sympathy for an earlier suggestion of deferring a decision over the chief fire officer’s pay, but that this had been done previously and now action was required.
“It’s about the size [of the service], the rurality, and the ambition we have, with ambition being a key factor,” he said.
“We have softened in the initial interpretation [of pay] and I’m really glad to see more work to come on pay grade structures.
“I’m not entirely comfortable with this, as there are wider societal issues with increased pay gaps, but I am ambitious for what we do here and so I am happy to support the rise.”
The meeting saw nine members vote in favour of the pay increase, three vote against and two members abstain.
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