A THREE-YEAR extension to the contract of Derby City Council's chief executive Adam Wilkinson was confirmed as councillors revealed they had considered abolishing the post to save cash.
Mr Wilkinson will be on about £160,000 a year – the same as at present.
His new contract, to begin on July 26, has an option to extend for a further two years when it comes to an end.
Deputy council leader Ranjit Banwait told Wednesday's annual meeting that councillors had explored not having a chief executive.
He said: "There are many different models [for running a council] out there.
"I'm confident we have fully explored other alternatives, like doing without a chief executive. Some local authorities have done that.
"It's absolutely vital that we get every scrap of value out of our officers, especially the chief executive."
He said he was pleased that Mr Wilkinson would stay to see through various multi-million-pound projects on which the council has decided since he became chief executive in 2009.
The contract extension was voted for unanimously.
Also last night, a new "Proud of Derby" campaign was given the backing of the Labour-led council but did not get support from the opposition Tory and Liberal Democrat parties.
The idea of the campaign will be to "affirm the vibrancy of the city of Derby".
Tory group deputy leader Matthew Holmes said: "Why do you need our endorsement to do something that should already be embedded in the current administration's agenda?"
Council leader Paul Bayliss said more details of the campaign would be revealed "in due course" now it had the council's backing.
