Enfield London Borough Council

In October 2020, The Enfield Independent newspaper reported a row over pay increases for senior officers at Enfield Council. The pay increases are set out in the council’s draft statement of accounts for 2019-20 (page 75).[7] Members of opposition group Community First criticised hikes in pay that saw one top executive take nearly £200,000 in salary and pension contributions – up 19 per cent from £168,317 the previous year. [8]

Community First claimed a pay award to executive director of place Sarah Cary, was one of several apparent breaches of the council’s statutory pay policy. Enfield Council chief executive Ian Davis said the award came after full council delegated him the authority to carry out a restructure of the senior management team. But Community First claimed this was still a breach of policy, as it meant Ms Cary’s salary was beyond the pay band set out for executive directors. The group questioned why the reason for the increase was not published in the accounts or on the council’s website. They pointed out that in the council’s constitution, the terms of reference for the remuneration committee states: “to make recommendations to the cabinet, and council if appropriate, on strategic pay and remuneration issues relating to staff in posts graded assistant director, director and chief executive, plus other salary scales with similar levels of remuneration.”

Cllr Laban said: “The salary increase, along with a £39,000 pension contribution for the executive director for place, was unacceptable given the current position of Enfield Council. In the Conservative group’s opinion, the policy was broken. “The chief executive has the power to award additional responsibilities. However, when extra responsibilities come with more money, these need to be reported to the remuneration committee for it to make recommendations – which did not occur in the executive director for place’s case.[9]

On 18 May 2020, during an interview with the Enfield Independent, Labour Leader Nesil Caliskan said local authorities faced a "catastrophe" if the budget gaps they had identified due to COVID-19 were not met with Government support.[10] On 2 July 2020, Enfield London Borough Council approved a pay-rise for its own members with strong opposition from other political parties.[11]

On 22 May 2020, three months into the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, council leader Nesil Caliskan reportedly wrote to local residents to tell them that after "many weeks lobbying government" to ensure "frontline key workers in Enfield have access to testing", a testing centre was now available to "NHS staff or staff working in a care setting, or members of their household, with covid-19 symptoms". The letter stated tests were available by "pre-booked appointment only". The following day, Cllr. Alev Cazimoglu, council cabinet member for public health, reportedly emailed her Labour councillor colleagues to say they could get tested "with no need to pre-book", before the tests had been "rolled out to all key workers" and anyone with council ID could get tested. After the email was leaked to local media, Tory opposition leader Cllr. Joanne Laban described Cazimoglu's behaviour as "disgraceful", noting that councillors' responsibilities did not entitle them to 'key worker' status. Cllr. Laban said that as the borough's cabinet member for public health, Cllr. Cazimogulu "should have been encouraging carers, street cleaners, waste collectors and all other frontline staff" to be tested, "not her council colleagues".[12]

On 4 September 2019, at an appeal hearing, the council’s conduct committee ruled Cllr Caliskan had bullied Cllr Brett and breached the local authority’s code of conduct over a decision to remove her from her post as cabinet member for public health. The dispute centred on the decision by Cllr Caliskan to discipline Cllr Brett before meeting with her to discuss the matter. However, after the ruling in June which found that her behaviour amounted to bullying, Cllr Caliskan refused to apologise and lodged an appeal. The council’s councillor conduct committee heard Cllr Caliskan’s appeal, three months after a ruling by the authority’s monitoring officer that her handling of a decision to temporarily remove Yasemin Brett from her cabinet post broke the council’s code of conduct and “amounted to bullying”. The Labour leader was instructed to write an apology to Cllr Brett and make a statement to a full council meeting “acknowledging the decision to remove Cllr Brett was done with undue haste and in an inappropriate fashion, contrary to the code of conduct”.[13]

In June 2019, Enfield Council leader Nesil Caliskan was found in an official ruling to have bullied a former cabinet member. According to the local authority’s monitoring officer, Cllr Caliskan’s decision to temporarily remove Cllr Yasemin Brett from her post broke the council’s code of conduct – and the way she handled the matter “amounted to bullying”. Cllr Brett, the former cabinet member for public health, was suspended in November 2018 after publicly disagreeing with a decision reached by the cabinet. A solicitor brought in to investigate the incident found Cllr Caliskan’s decision to suspend her breached the council’s code of conduct. In a letter from the Director of Law and Governance, issuing his ruling following the solicitor’s investigation, he said the council leader had “failed to treat Cllr Brett with respect” by failing to discuss her concerns over collective decision-making before removing Cllr Brett from her post. The Director of Law and Governance also found Cllr Caliskan had made a second breach of the code of conduct by the way she had “communicated decisions” and through her behaviour in a meeting on 18 November 2018 that “amounted to bullying of Cllr Brett by the leader of the council”.[14]