This was awkward: Jason Perry, the politician who promised to clawback money from the massive golden handshake paid to the previous council CEO, in October found himself overseeing a pay-off to Katherine Kerswell, as she resigned after five years as chief exec.
Following Perry’s formal announcement to councillors, it was revealed that Katherine Kerswell (right in pic), the council chief executive since 2020, had quit her job. Though not before Kerswell “negotiated” (read: demanded) a pay-off equivalent to three months’ salary to ensure that she did not work out her three-month notice period.
This was the surest sign yet that the government-appointed Commissioners were taking control of Croydon Council, leaving Jason Perry (left in pic) as a lame-duck mayor through until next May’s local elections. The issue around the £50,000 golden handshake paid to Kerswell was hugely embarrassing to Perry.
In August 2020, he had been a member of the appointments committee which rubber-stamped the decision to pay Kerswell’s predecessor as council CEO, Jo “Negreedy” Negrini, a £437,000 settlement for her to pack her Gucci briefcase and vacate the building (sources close to Perry say that he voted against the Negrini payment, but was in the minority on a sub-sommittee chaired by Labour’s Tony Newman). When campaigning to get elected as mayor in 2021, Perry claimed that he would take action to claw back at least some of the Negrini pay-off.
To date, Perry has managed to recover the grand total of £0.00 from Jo Negrini.
