Agency on the CEO job – City of Ballarat council briefs

THE search for a new, permanent chief executive officer for the City of Ballarat is officially on following the okaying of a recruitment company to fill the position by council at its final meeting of the current term last Wednesday, 17 September.

The move came followed on from May’s State Ombudsman’s report which resulted in council terminating the contract of then CEO Justine Linley and subsequently appointing interim head Janet Dore.

After sending out an expression of interest and receiving proposals from ten agencies, including three local companies, councillors moved to engage nationwide firm McArthur.

City of Ballarat mayor Cr Ben Taylor said he looks forward to the agency taking the search local, national and even international to look for the best candidate.

“To at least start the process now gives a couple of months for the agency to go to market, in this case, for McArthur’s to go to market, and do the best search they can,” he said.

“It will be up to the new council to go through that with this agency to find that candidate for the new position of CEO.

“All the applications we received for the expression of interest were excellent, all are capable, the sad thing is we have to make a decision on one.”

Cr Des Hudson added, “Having worked hand in hand with McArthur previously and with [executive search and selection manager] Nick [Kelly] especially, I believe he is another professional and they will cast the net very widely.

“Hopefully we get a strong quality feel that the we can appoint or the new council can appointment the new CEO to take the city forward.”

 

Wendouree West set for rec upgrade

Three new soccer pitches will be built at the Wendouree West Recreation Reserve thanks to the Victorian Government’s Sport & Recreation Victoria grants.

This community project is set to upgrade facilities and supporting infrastructure for the area’s community groups and sporting clubs.

Council resolved to contract Pitchcraft to complete the almost $2 million job.

Cr Daniel Moloney said that he, and the area, are grateful for this additional State Government funding.

“Wendouree West is an area that generally gets so badly overlooked,” he said.

“While this might come across as a story about soccer pitches, it’s actually really about connecting young people into their community and getting them participating.

“The opportunity behind it is so great.”

In agreeance, Cr Des Hudson added, “It’s great that Wendouree West Reserve will be a significant soccer facility with all the bells and whistles and cannot congratulate them enough.”

 

Changes made to infrastructure planning policy

Council moved a revised Community Infrastructure Planning Policy which should inform the planning processes for infrastructure across the city and aim to guide fair and transparent decision making.

The policy passed through with an added recommendation that officers report back within a year on cost methodology and to integrate the asset management policy with the infrastructure policy.

In moving the motion Cr Moloney said, “If it was purely about cost benefit, you would do almost nothing as a council … we tend to do all of the things that no one wants to do … because their important in the community.

“We need to balance these competing interests of a cost benefit but also a need to deliver assets and services that the community needs.

“I’m quite happy with this amended motion which tries to do both.”

 

Greenfield areas set to grow

A policy which identifies the northern and western greenfield investigation areas as Ballarat’s future growth areas was moved.

Part of the document includes an initiative to partner with landowners and developers to deliver technical work, precinct structure plans and contribution plans for the areas.

Property developer Mike Kaufman joined the meeting to submit on behalf of a group of companies, and to field questions about the potential projects.

“The importance of having a continuous residential land supply is critical for the Ballarat economy,” he said.

“Recognition by council that a new approach is needed is acknowledged … we would recommend a further item update be provided outlining the target timeframes for the relevant tasks to be undertaken.

“We’re seeing the demand in these areas accelerating because of the services that come with it.”

 

Kurrajong Road sells

Added as an urgent matter, council made a call on the sale of 1 Kurrajong Road, Wendouree.

After receiving no submissions in response to the public notice of the intention to sell the land, councillors moved to offload the land to a purchaser for $800,000 plus GST.

In doing so, the council gave the authority to the CEO to execute the documents necessary to get the sale done.

Cr Grant Tillet moved the item noting that the eventual selling point was well above the originally anticipated price.

“This is a fundamental part of the forest rangers project, it is a piece of land that will now become ore redundant once the club rooms have been moved,” he said.

 

Council farewell

As part of the final general meeting of the current council term, many of the councillors thanked the City, its residents and staff for the time they had spent in office.

Cr Tillet offered his thanks to everyone he had worked alongside throughout the last four years, although he was ultimately not upbeat about his time in the chamber.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve failed, I didn’t get one kilometre of new road in the rural section of the city,” he said.

“There’s more minuses than pluses so I will apologise for that to the people that are involved, but I did give it my best shot.”

While all the current councillors are set to run once again for council, there were many well wishes for possible re-elections.

“Whether we agree or disagree, the reality is we have learnt a lot from each other and that’s important,” Cr Moloney said.

Cr Hudson added, “Everyone who is elected always brings their best to the decision-making table and hopefully the community can see that everyone is trying to make Ballarat the best possible city it can be.”

Mayor Cr Ben Taylor closed the discussion on a hopeful note.

“It’s been a big challenge for the last 12 months, we had COVID, an Ombudsman’s report,” he said.

“There is so much hope for this city, I think we as a city and as a collective community have done an amazing job.”