Acting Geelong council chief executive Kaarina Phyland due for leave before, after budget vote

Kaarina Phyland will be on leave when the Geelong council’s contentious budget is voted on. A City Hall insider has lifted the lid on the tumultuous period.

Kaarina Phyland

Acting City of Greater Geelong boss Kaarina Phyland will be on leave when council’s heavily criticised budget is due to be finalised.

Details of Ms Phyland’s time away come as a senior insider at council has broken ranks to describe plunging staff morale at the city and job cuts as “insidious, clouded in secrecy and bereft of logic”.

The draft budget overseen by Ms Phyland and others has been condemned by sections of the community for the level of funding it provides for public libraries and the Kardinia Park pool, as well as cuts to community organisations.

The budget is due to be voted on at the June 27 council meeting. Ms Phyland will be on annual leave from June 23 to July 9.

A source who said they were a senior Geelong council officer, and wanted to remain anonymous, added their voice to the growing chorus of concerns about the operation of the organisation in recent months.

They said staff morale was “ at rock bottom” and decision making had become erratic.

A council spokeswoman said Ms Phyland’s last period of leave was two weeks at Christmas.

“Kaarina Phyland will be present for all briefings for the June council meeting and will oversee its agenda development prior to going on leave,” the spokeswoman said.

“(She) booked this annual leave nine months ago, when it was anticipated she would be acting CEO for a period of three months.

“She has elderly parents and school aged children so this period is to support those two commitments.”

Victorian school holidays run between June 26 and July 7.

Council’s acting executive director of city infrastructure, David Greaves, will fill in for Ms Phyland. Mr Greaves has worked in local government since 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The senior officer who spoke to the Addy, said decision making at the city had become “erratic and difficult to rationalise” since former chief executive Martin Cutter had left, and a staff restructure had ramped up.

City of Greater Geelong mayor Trent Sullivan has previously said the restructure, two years in the making, was “crucial” to keep council financially sustainable and improve the way it served the community.

The senior officer said they staff who raised concerns about changes within the organisation were being made redundant.

The senior officer said the redundancy of council’s planning and investment manager prior to the April round of job losses had started the pattern.

They said the April redundancies were “clouded in secrecy and bereft of logic”.

“The typical response relates to financial sustainability. While this may sound reasonable, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The organisation’s financial problems appeared out of nowhere,” the source said.

“All of a sudden we are facing bankruptcy. The budget is designed to create a surplus, but municipalities are not intended to operate like a profit-making business.

“We exist to provide services to the community, and can operate with a reasonable deficit.”

The source said council’s executive management had been “gutted … to the point we have people acting up several levels to fill roles.

“To be clear, morale is rock bottom with staff openly discussing job opportunities elsewhere. “There is a significant number of staff on stress level because of the uncertainty surrounding their jobs and futures.

“There is an insidious nature to what has been going on in the organisation and the council.

“Managers and the remaining executive have been left to pick up the pieces and deliver the changes that are being made by these ‘change experts’. There is little to no support for them.

“As a result, the work we do and services provided to the community are suffering. We simply do not have the capacity to do both.

“On top of this we are also dealing with the significant impact of the 2026 Commonwealth Games on officers time and resources.”

Originally published as Acting Geelong council chief executive Kaarina Phyland due for leave before, after budget vote