Council starts search for interim CEO, reports on report

RECRUITMENT of an interim CEO for the City of Ballarat has begun with council last week approving a firm to supply candidates.

Melbourne based Sal Corp was selected from a list of six companies who responded to an expression of interest put out by the municipality. In all nine providers were approached.

“With looking at those agencies they all had experienced CEOs or candidates already on the books that were available,” said mayor Cr Ben Taylor.

“And that’s we’re looking at, as part of an interim, is actually going through looking for an experienced CEO and someone that’s available, and Sal Corp had those options.

“We looked at their [Sal Corp’s] qualification, their experience in the market place as well as in relation to the cost.”

In addition to overseeing the day-to-day running of the municipality the interim CEO will be expected to address issues raised in the recent State Ombudsman’s report.

Top of the list will are recruitment practices, use of municipal credit cards and purchasing policies.

Also, on the agenda according to Cr Taylor is examining the culture of the City of Ballarat as well as working with councillors on hiring the next, permanent, CEO.

“First and foremost… is to look at stability in the organisation,” Cr Taylor said.

“As a council of 1000 people what we need to do is insure that we’re delivering for our community and the staff have confidence that can get out there, and the community have confidence we can deliver on the services we have.”

Interviews for the interim CEO role are expected to get underway soon and Cr Taylor said all councillors would be on the panel.

“The plan is to have all nine councillors available,” he said. “That’s happened in the past with CEOs, even in relation to the CEOs performance review.”

While the City’s director of community development Neville Ivey is currently acting CEO, he can only continue in that role for a limited period without further approval by council.

The authority given to him by previous CEO Justine Linley expires after 28 days under the Local Government Act.

Mr Ivey took on the acting CEO role on 14 May when Ms Linley was placed on leave following the damaging State Ombudsman’s report into hiring and human resources issues within the senior ranks of the municipality.

That means council has a week to recruit and hire an interim CEO before a special meeting is required to extended Mr Ivey’s acting tenure. A special meeting is also required to confirm any selection of an interim CEO.

The move to approve Sal Corp to assist to with the recruitment of an interim CEO was one of two urgent items on the agenda of last Wednesday’s City of Ballarat council meeting.

The other was to approve a two-paragraph report back to the State Ombudsman on actions taken by the municipality on the report.

“That was part of the Ombudsman’s report to do that by June 20 with the actions we’ve done… as well as giving feedback on what where doing on an interim CEO,” Cr Taylor said.

Cr Taylor said he didn’t “see any reason why” further reporting would be made to the Ombudsman on the report.