South Wales Evening Post - 14 October 2006
This is the new top man at Swansea Council.
Paul Smith joined the council as its new £150,000-a-year chief executive at the start of this month.
Mr Smith, aged 52, joins Swansea from Gloucester City Council where he spent five years as managing director.
As head of Swansea Council he will be in charge of a £330 million annual budget and around 12,000 staff.
The figures dwarf those of Gloucester City Council, where the annual budget was just £16 million and the workforce was less than 1,000.
But Mr Smith is not phased by the prospect of taking charge at Swansea Council.
He said: "I am the fifth chief executive that Swansea has had in the last four or five years.
"There was Viv Sugar, who left in 2002, then we had an acting chief exec, then Tim Thorogood, then another acting chief exec, and now me.
"In that time that could have been very dysfunctional for any organisation.
"But during that time our performances at Swansea have improved. Most of the evidence shows improvements despite such a lot of turnover.
"So we have to ask what is the chief executive's role?.
"It is not to dabble in the detail so much as I did in Gloucester. That was much smaller, but here there is scope to set out a clear vision.
"I think everyone who is here recognises the role they play and do not need me to point it out."
Mr Smith said he realised the council was here to deliver services to the public.
"People do look to the council for answers. Every day the Evening Post is full of letters asking 'What is the council going to do about this issue or that issue?'
"I think it is my role to assist councillors help set budgets and form policies. I should set the context to allow those policies to be implemented in an efficient, customer-focused way."
The way to achieve that was to have staff working for a common goal, according to Mr Smith.
"We have 12,000 staff working for us. If you include their families that's 30,000 people in the city and with their friends as well you can see that it touches lives.
"There is the opportunity for all our staff to be ambassadors for the city and for the council.
"What I would like is for all our staff to know that it is one council so people who work here see others, including those in different departments, as colleagues, and seek the common objective of improving the lives of residents and visitors to Swansea.
"I want them to be the eyes and ears of the council."
Mr Smith has seen very little of Swansea since taking up his post on October 2.
However, he remembers the city from his time as a housing officer at Cardiff Council.
His wife, Keri, grew up in Pontardawe, and the family would holiday in the area.
He is currently living with Keri's parents in Pontardawe before finding a home in the city.
He said: "I know Swansea fairly well because of Keri's parents. It's her home area so we have been coming here for many years.
"We would go for walks on Gower and I remember watching football matches at The Vetch when Colchester played.
"When I was working in Cardiff we would come down to use the leisure centre because it was so much better than what was on offer elsewhere.
"What strikes me now is that there cannot be many cities in the UK that have such a fantastic natural environment. That is a huge advantage for it from the start."
Mr Smith refused to be drawn on his predecessor Tim Thorogood, who left at the start of this year after a planning wrangle.
He said: "I have got no remit, or wish, to make a judgement on any previous chief executive.
"We are different people and we bring different strengths and weaknesses to the role.
"I do not like new bosses who come into an organisation and assume that what they are inheriting is wrong, or bad or underperforming."
