Unscrupulous and criminal or fair and balanced.

The top earning council chief executives

David McNulty, Surrey, £200,000 to £230,268
Joanna Killian, Essex, £230,000, £30,000 as shared CEO of Brentwood Borough Council, £15,000 bonus in 2008, £2,000 expenses and allowances.
Derek Myers, Kensington and Chelsea, £220,000 to £230,000
Gerald Jones, Wandsworth, £225,000 to £230,000
Andrea Hill, Suffolk, £218,592
Mark Hammond, West Sussex, £215,000 to £220,000
Andrew Smith, Hampshire, £209,999 to £219,999
Peter Gilroy, Kent, £214,423
John Foster, Islington, £210,000
Ron Hilton, Staffordshire, £206,331
Caroline Tapster, Hertfordshire, £203,427, with £3,659 car allowance
Colin Hilton, Liverpool, £203,048
Chris Duffield, City of London, £200,000 to £226,530 - of which 59 per cent is paid for by taxpayers, the rest from the authority's property and investment earnings
Andrew Kilburn, Waltham Forest, £200,000 to £213,268
Kevin Lavery, Cornwall, £200,000
George Garlick, Durham £200,000
Nick Walkley, Barnet, £200,000
Moira Gibb, Camden, in excess of £200,000

I can only speak as an employee of one of the above councils. I have seen greedy good old boy/girl network get richer while they reduce and sell off (outsource) services, make staff redundant and/or re-evaluate staff at lower grade and award themselves a bonus for "saving" the council so much money. I've seen about 5 of this ilk step stone to greener pastures (outside the county council)after slash and burn of their respective services, in the last 9 months. Do they do this to protect themselves from repercussions of their decisions? What if an audit or the public determines they did wrong? How do you reprimand someone who does not work for the county council any longer? They have now buggered off with the cash and garnered a better job.