Kate Josephs and Eugene Walker: Sheffield Council’s two chief executives and their salaries

Absent Kate Josephs is currently on her fifth week of discretionary paid leave after becoming involved in a police investigation. Her base salary is £201,292.

Eugene Walker, executive director for resources, has been appointed acting CEO while an independent investigation by the council is carried out.

The budget papers show Mr Walker’s salary is £154,332 and the council has not confirmed whether he will receive a pay rise for covering the CEO role.

As Ms Josephs is not suspended, the council effectively now has two chief executives.

Mr Walker, who lives in Barnsley, joined Sheffield Council in 1998. He has been steering through the budget for 2022/23 which warns of severe cuts and widespread reviews of services.

Vulnerable people with expensive care home packages will have them reassessed, libraries will be reviewed to see if any can become volunteer-led, the council is using £14.5m of savings to plug the budget blackhole and council tax is rising by almost three per cent, the maximum allowed.

There are also questions about who will be the Returning Officer, a role normally undertaken by the chief executive with a special additional allowance of £30,000.

The budget documents show James Henderson, director of policy and performance, will take on this responsibility on top of his salary of £90,215 but this has not been confirmed.

What is the internal investigation?

The Sue Gray report confirmed that the Metropolitan Police will investigate a party that Ms Josephs admits that she attended at the Cabinet Office on December 17, 2020 during the height of lockdown restrictions.

She was working as director general of the Covid Taskforce before starting her new role at Sheffield Council.

Ms Josephs released a statement and apologised on January 14. She had repeatedly denied that she had been involved in any Downing Street parties.

A cross party committee was set up and has brought in an independent investigator, who the council has refused to name.