Geelong council to fill holes at the top as executive vacancies unexpectedly benefit its bottom line
The search for Geelong council executives will start soon as City Hall seeks stability.
The search to fill three of the most senior roles at the City of Greater Geelong is set to begin as new chief executive Ali Wastie seeks stability at City Hall.
Following a tumultuous 12 months that saw major upheaval within its ranks, three of the five executive director positions are filled by employees in an “acting” capacity.
The vacancies have brought an unexpected benefit however, with money paid to key management personnel – councillors, the chief executive and executive directors – falling last financial year.
Council’s financial statement, released last week, revealed $2.47m was paid in 2022-23, down from $2.55m in the previous period.
The amount paid to other senior staff – those earning $160,000 and above – was also down, from $5.99m to $5.46m, which included $480,000 worth of termination payments.
Both results flew in the face of total employee costs for the city’s approximately 2800 staff, which jumped 6.3 per cent to $187.4m.
The documents show 23 council employees were paid more than $200,000 last financial year.
Staff turnover of 14.7 per cent was down slightly on the previous period, but still well above pre-Covid levels.
Ms Wastie confirmed recruitment plans for the executive director roles were being finalised and it was expected they would be advertised in October.
“In the meantime, the staff acting in the executive director roles are each providing strong leadership for their respective directorates,” she said.
As it stands, only Robyn Stevens and Gareth Smith are permanent in their respective roles as executive directors for community service delivery and planning and design.
City infrastructure, strategy, governance and corporate, and customer, community and economy are unfilled.
The latter division also has three senior management positions vacant: business and industry experience, community experience, and chief marketing officer.
The Geelong Advertiser reported in June the loss of experienced staff had heaped significant pressure on City Hall and exacerbated a culture of fear.
An internal restructure aimed at improving services and ensuring council’s financial sustainability has resulted in many redundancies.
“Good staff have walked out; good staff are on stress leave and are not coming back until there’s change,” one source said at the time.
“It is an environment of fear. If you talk, you’re out.”
Upon taking the top job, Ms Wastie said developing strong relationships with staff at all levels was a top priority.
“I’m very much about relationships and people, and developing teams and people, so really investing in staff, investing in their futures, and what I find is that’s what brings about a high-performing organisation,” she said.
“That’s worked really well for me in the past.”
Each Geelong councillor receives a $38,316 allowance this financial year as set by the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal, Deputy Mayor Anthony Aitken gets $63,480, and Mayor Trent Sullivan $126,958.
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Originally published as Geelong council to fill holes at the top as executive vacancies unexpectedly benefit its bottom line
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