Wastie marks 100 days as city’s CEO

ALI Wastie has marked 100 days as the City of Greater Geelong’s new chief executive officer and said improving the culture of the organisation was one of her highlights so far.

Ms Wastie, who was previously CEO at Bass Coast Shire, was appointed in June of this year and started in the city’s top job on August 28.

In an interview at Wurriki Nyal late last month, Ms Wastie declined to rate her own performance over the first 100 days but said the period had seen “a great uplift in the organisational culture” of the organisation and its 2,850 employees.

“It’s brought a period of stability and calm by providing really clear direction on where we want to be, and what we need to do to get there, and that’s to be the highest-performing council in Australia.

“And that’s critically important, because a high-performing culture means we deliver great outcomes for our community, which is growing, and obviously their expectations and aspirations grow as well.”

She said part of this was the city’s new four-person executive leadership team, revealed in early December.

“That was a key goal of mine, to have that in place within the first 100 days.

“I think it’s very aligned to the community vision in the Council Plan, and the strategies as well, and also recognising we need to be agile and really lean into areas that are growing.

“For example, to make sure there’s enough supports in there to get our focus right on planning, which has always had a strong track record here… but we’re also going into areas where we really need to go into, and that’s around community development, place-based planning as well; beefing up those areas that need that extra support.”

Ms Wastie also cited the city’s financial sustainability as an early area of focus.

“That’s an area the council wanted me to pay particular attention to, and I’m pleased to say we’ll be looking like we’ll be forecasting an operating surplus at the end of this financial year,” she said.

Over her next 100 days and beyond, Ms Wastie said the Greater Geelong community should expect “responsible decision making that is informed by evidence, a highly-motivated council, and a council that’s connecting strongly with its community organisations, its volunteers, its people who work tirelessly on behalf of their communities, and how we leverage those partnerships”.

“There would be community organisations out there who might say it’s difficult and challenging to have conversations with the council; I think that’s an area where I’d like to focus on and have a little more concerted effort.”

Ms Wastie is highly optimistic about Geelong’s future.

“This is the best regional city in Australia, without a doubt – we’ve got all the bones that many regional cities and areas would die for,” she said.

Despite becoming CEO in the hometown of the Cats, Ms Wastie is not any less of a Kangaroos fan 100 days on, and said she hoped to see a North Melbourne vs Geelong AFLW Grand Final in 2024, ideally at GMHBA Stadium.

“I would like to say North Melbourne will be making the AFL grand final, but I think that might be a bit of a stretch – how about they make it in my tenure while I’m Geelong?”