Toowoomba council new CEO Sal Petroccitto outlines key priorities, vision for region

The Toowoomba council’s new chief executive Sal Petroccitto has declared everything is “on the table” in pursuit of a major transformation for both the organisation to help unleash the region’s future growth. Our exclusive interview here:

Sal Petroccitto’s new office at City Hall overlooks Ruthven Street, but it’s not a view he’s planning to get too acquainted with.

“I don’t like being behind (my desk), I like being out there,” the new chief executive of the Toowoomba Regional Council said, referring to a local government area home to 185,000 people.

“I’ve been to Charlton now twice already (to meet staff) and I intend to get to all of our key regional locations, because I want to hear from the community, I want to hear from business leaders.

“I’m in this sponge stage at the moment, I’m just gathering information.”

Sal Petroccitto has outlined his key priorities and approach to leadership in his new role as chief executive of the Toowoomba Regional Council.

A man who briefed more than 35 state and federal ministers and worked with three state premiers during his career has now been given the daunting task of not just guiding the massive organisation to safer shores, but leading into a brighter future.

Mr Petroccitto, a former planner who was most recently the head of Australia’s heavy vehicle regulator (NHVR) and has strong ties to transport and logistics, has wasted no time meeting with all levels of staff from the council’s 1700-strong workforce in a bid to tackle its major problems, declaring nothing was “off the table”.

“Nine days in, have I got it down pat? No, but am I starting to frame my mind around where and the things? Yeah definitely,” he told News Corp.

The exclusive interview comes weeks after the TRC delivered its most painful budget in years, with an effective 15 per cent rate rise.

He now heads an organisation significant challenges around asset sustainability, workforce shortages, workplace culture and debt servicing.

Major priorities for Petroccitto revealed

Sal Petroccitto has outlined his key priorities and approach to leadership in his new role as chief executive of the Toowoomba Regional Council.

Finding a huge raft of savings and fast-tracking the council’s long-delayed planning scheme will be “immediate” priorities for Mr Petroccitto in his first 12 months.

The council endorsed its 2025-26 budget in June with a surplus of about $1.5m — conditional of $14.75m worth of savings being found by June 30 next year.

The responsibility of finding those cuts has been handed the new CEO, who said he would start the process with conversations.

“My GMs are all giving me their briefs, they’re telling me how their businesses work, we’re starting to look at where those synergies and opportunities will align,” Mr Petroccitto said.

“You don’t walk away from a difficult discussion – we have the discussion, we articulate, we communicate and we support.”

Another major headache remains the council’s new planning scheme, which has cost nearly $9m since 2020 with no sign of an end date.

The cost to community and continued delays on what is easily the council’s most important document has caused major ructions within the councillors as well as the development community.

Mr Petroccitto, who has a background in planning, said he already given clear directions to his new planning and development GM Ed Johnson about moving the scheme forward as quickly as possible.

“My land use planning background, I think that’s where some of these skills are going to come into the job — understanding our walkable catchments, our linkages, our networks and all of that from that strategic perspective, and then the ability to move down to a detailed level,” he said.

“You’ve got Ed who is an experienced planner, you’ve actually got a CEO who actually understands land use planning and is still pretty well connected with the land use planning fraternity.

“Ed knows it’s a priority because I’ve told him it’s a priority for me – Ed and I have had some actually lengthy discussions in the nine days that I’ve been here, because this is really important.”

Mr Petroccitto said the success — or failure — to deliver a workable planning scheme for the region could dictate its future.

“We see the fundamental value in having a land use planning scheme that provides clarity to the development system, but also respects what this city is trying to achieve from its growth and its patterns,” he said.

“If you don’t get the fundamental land use principles right, you will stuff the city.

“I’ve seen cities that have suffered from poor planning decisions, and if you get a planning scheme that doesn’t balance the values – be it economic, environmental, cultural, heritage – you create cities that have no soul.

“We’re keen as mustard to make sure we deliver out a good document.”

Service cuts, delivery changes on the table

Toowoomba Regional Council mayor Geoff McDonald (left) and deputy mayor Rebecca Vonhoff talk to media after the appointment of new CEO Sal Petroccitto OAM, Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Mr Petroccitto knows he has been brought in to shake things up — and he’s declared nothing is off limits in the pursuit of a major upheaval of the TRC’s finances, operations and future growth.

“Those 11 (councillors) made a decision to bring me on board, (because) they saw something in my capabilities and I would be failing if I didn’t put everything on the table,” he said.

Among the first steps in the pursuit of nearly $15m in savings will be reviewing the council’s entire service delivery model, which he broke into three categories based on how essential they were.

Mr Petroccitto explicitly said services that the council considered “like to haves” were potentially on the chopping block, but wanted to assure both residents and staff he was not coming in with a sledgehammer.

“One of the interesting things that we will probably need to discuss through this journey is, what are the services that we are delivering, what standard are they being delivered to, can they continue to be delivered too?” he said.

“It will come back to the services – the services that we’re going to deliver, the standard of services and the service expectation.”

Mr Petroccitto was notably interested by polling showing Chronicle readers would overwhelming prefer services to be cut over more rate rises.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if we didn’t put those proposals on the table, and if your readers are already saying that there’s an appetite to less services to stop a rate rise, well that’s something we would need to take into consideration,” he said.

“There are essential services that an organisation like us will need to deliver, and there’s a standard that we need to ensure that we deliver them at.

“There are those intermediary type services that we do need to do, but how do we do them (better), and then there’s those ‘like to have services’ that, in an environment where we’re all probably struggling to look at how we deliver on budgets, a robust and adult discussion has to be had.

“My view would be that would need to be had with the community, it needs to be had with those 11 people in that chamber to give us that direction, and then how we form what our delivery model may be.”

Mr Petroccitto predicted some services could likely be outsourced to private or community groups, pointing to the management of the region’s pools by an external operator, and also hinted at “hybrid operational models” for other services.

“Done right, you actually potentially could get even better responsiveness,” he said.

The new CEO could not guarantee there would not be another rate rise yet, but urged residents to “give me more time” to better understand the organisation.

CEO’s approach to senior management

Sal Petroccitto has outlined his key priorities and approach to leadership in his new role as chief executive of the Toowoomba Regional Council.

With the exception of Mr Johnson and the recently-appointed head of water and waste Jaek Passier, Mr Petroccitto inherits an executive leadership team filled with local government veterans.

These include infrastructure’s Mike Brady, environment and community’s Nick Hauser and corporate services GM Ann-Marie Johnston, who have a combined 45 years of experience at the TRC and served under previous CEO Brian Pidgeon.

Speaking holistically, Mr Petroccitto made it clear he wanted to encourage “new blood” into the organisation and prepared to make changes to staffing levels where required.

“I’m a very big advocate of how we bring in and grow our young, so I’m very strong in (encouraging) graduates (and) apprentices, because if you don’t have that young leadership capability coming through the organisation, the organisation will stagnate,” he said.

“You need to be able to instil in your people that you trust them, you’ve also got the ability to understand their issues, but also give them the opportunity to innovate and come up with a solution.

“In all of my time leading the NHVR, I didn’t micromanage my executives, but what I did was I gave them clear boundaries, I gave them clear expectations of how I would like to see them operate, but we invested in our people – we invested in our culture.”

Mr Petroccitto said he was also prepared to have difficult conversations with his senior managers, if needed.

“For my senior team, there is a permanent head now, there is someone that’s actually prepared to work with them to help them grow,” he said.

“Let’s call it as it is – in any organisational arrangements where structures will be discussed and that, there may or may not be changes.

“At some stage there might be a misalignment between the strategic direction I want to take and what their views are, but we deal with that and we manage that.”

‘I read all staff comments’: Sal’s plan to fix culture

Then-NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto (centre-left) with The Hon SA Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan, NHVR Chairman the Hon Bruce Baird and Safety and Compliance Officers.

The organisation has also been weighed down by massive staff vacancy numbers, which has put upward pressure on external consultants and contractors.

Workplace culture has also been a significant issue for many years, with the TRC making a concerted effort to correct this after it was revealed in 2021 a huge amount of instances of bullying and harassment were going unreported.

Mr Petroccitto said his time at the NHVR had laid out the pathway to improve the workplace, outlining safety, people, culture and customers as the four pillars of an organisation’s success.

He indicated he would read every staff member’s survey comments personally.

Sal Petroccitto during his time as the NHVR CEO.

“Our last NHVR engagement results (before I left), we had an 85 per cent engagement rate and a 74 per cent satisfaction rate – the year before we were 83, 73,” Mr Petroccitto said.

“I come from an organisation which had very high engagement and was very willing to provide their views, but an organisation that actually would review.

“When we invested in our people and our culture, our engagement improved and that engagement came to one where staff were actually willing to go that extra mile to actually invest.

“I would read all verbatim comments to really understand (our staff) – how do you know the time of your people if you’re not reading them?”

Unleashing region’s potential

The Toowoomba region’s untapped economic potential was one of the elements that attracted Mr Petroccitto to the chief executive’s role — and he hopes to unleash it under his leadership.

He said the combination of effective transport management, an updated planning scheme, advocacy with higher levels of government and cutting red tape were among the levers the council could pull to not only attract new business to the region but help existing industries flourish.

“What we need to do is ensure that we get the most productive outcome for us (and) that relationship that we have with George Street, and to some degree with Canberra, will be important in how we push productivity,” he said.

“There are fundamental building blocks, whether it’s the land use plan, whether it’s a clear and concise transport plan, or an economic plan.

“Remove as much red tape as you can, facilitate as much of the process without compromising the process, (and) that will aid whoever wants to come into the region to generate some sort of economic outcome.

“What I’m keen to do is try and get these guys that live in Brisbane, how do we get them up here?”

Originally published as Toowoomba council new CEO Sal Petroccitto outlines key priorities, vision for region