Job share plan is insult that will only harm the borough

So by the end of this month (ie the end of this week) Boston's Chief Executive Mick Gallagher will have left the council - probably one of the shortest periods between announcing one's resignation and clearing one's desk in recent local government history.
Whilst he has had some nice things to say about his time in post, the generosity has apparently not been reciprocated by the leader of the council in the way good custom and tradition usually dictates. That's possibly because Mr Gallagher, whilst thanking his staff colleagues effusively, has made no mention at all of anything by way of contribution from the councillors, and there may well be good reason for that.
As he leaves "to take his career in a new direction" (which can only be up) it is being said that the council will discuss the chief executive's post this week and has refused to rule out sharing the role with another authority.
Another report claims that unconfirmed rumours say that sharing a chief executive with neighbouring South Holland Council could be explored.
Not that long ago a light-hearted suggestion was made that the council could save money by cutting the council's senior managers' hours back from five days a week to four. At the time Mr Gallagher was famously quoted as saying such a move would be most welcome, as he and his colleagues were currently working more like six or seven days a week.
Whilst we all enjoyed a jolly good chuckle about that at the time, it is now nonetheless little short of an insult to suggest that a full time chief executive can be replaced by someone working half the hours and whose existing loyalty, knowledge and expertise belongs to another authority entirely.
Implicit in this idea is the suggestion that South Holland's chief executive, Terry Huggins, has time on his hands despite being paid £106,922 for a full time post - a higher level of pay, incidentally, than the departing Mr Gallagher.
And if indeed such an idea went forward, how exactly would it work?
Boston Borough Council wants a chief executive but is too stingy to pay for one. To save, for the sake of argument, £50 thousand a year, they ask Mr Huggins to grind his way down the A16 for two and a half days a week to work for Boston.
And what does South Holland District Council do? Do they suddenly decide that their chief executive isn't really needed full-time? If so, will they cut his pay by 50% so he can come to Boston part-time, with Boston paying him half of Mick Gallagher's old salary.... which means he winds up with less pay and a load of hassle stuck in the traffic?
If nothing else, it would incentivise him to pursue the case for a bypass with considerable vigour!
Mr Huggins has been chief executive at South Holland for some time, and last month saw the Audit Commission rate his authority as excellent - moving it into the top 25% of district councils and representing a two place leap from "fair" in 2003.
If he's a man who wants to keep his eye on the ball, he won't want to be shackled to a lacklustre authority like Boston, whose last rating in October 2004 was "fair." The only change in the Audit Commission's view since then has been the condemnation of Boston's strategic housing service.
When the former deputy leader of the council resigns because of the excessive workload running a handful of portfolios, and bleats about the hardship of 12 hour days, the suggestion that Boston can prosper successfully without a full time professional at the helm is derisive.
To contemplate such a thing is to flush the borough even further down the tubes than it is already.
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