New top brass call

Aug 9 2008 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

A NEW chief spin doctor is being sought at Liverpool City Council nearly two years after the previous one resigned.

The post of head of communications is advertised with a salary of £74,232 plus up to 10% performance related pay.

Matt Finnegan, who was paid £65,000 for the job, resigned in late August 2006, claiming he had been subjected to a “campaign of appalling victimisation”.

Mr Finnegan had been caught up in the public fall-out of former leader Mike Storey and former chief executive Sir David Henshaw.

One of the key criteria is knowledge of crisis management and the ability to “stay calm and retain authority in an apparent crisis”.