Clarence Valley councillors voted to recruit a consultant after transparency debate

‘Even our staff, unless they’re very high level, can’t just choose a consultant like a captain’s pick,’ said one Clarence Valley councillor in relation to a recent mayoral minute.

The Clarence Valley Council Mayor has defended his choice of recruitment consultant despite other councillors suggesting it was a “captain’s pick”.

In council chambers on April 26 Mayor Ian Tiley proposed a motion that Stephen Blackadder from Blackadder and Associates Consulting be used for recruiting the general manager at a cost of $17,000.

“No other councillor would be able to recommend or ring up a consultant and organise to do something without actually getting further quotes,” Councillor Karen Toms said.

“Even our staff, unless they’re very high level, can’t just choose a consultant like a captain’s pick and discuss the price with him,” she said.

Mayor Ian Tiley defended his decision to endorse the recruitment consultant for the general manager’s position and maintained it was within the Office of Local Government Guidelines for him to do so.

Ms Toms queried why Mr Blackadder’s proposal had not been shared despite the mayor receiving it a few days prior.

“I have an issue with the fact we are making a decision with the captain’s pick with one organisation that you’re very familiar with, which is fine, but we haven’t seen a proposal,” Ms Toms said.

“I think we need to be open and transparent like we promised we would be for our community and put it out there so we give other opportunities for other organisations to actually put forward their proposals so we could make an informed decision,” she said.

Councillor Karen Toms called time constraints as a reason not to go to an EOI was “rubbish” as council debated the motion of a recruitment consultant she called a “captain’s pick”.

 Councillor Debrah Novak supported a proposed amendment by Ms Toms to seek expressions of interest for suitably qualified organisations to assist in recruiting a general manager.

Councillor Novak also questioned a conflict of interest between the mayor and Mr Blackadder to which the mayor denied stating he was acting within the Office of Local Government General Manager Recruitment Guidelines.

She further raised concerns of a failure to provide opportunities for other recruitment consultants to put in an expression of interest.

Clarence Valley Council councillor Debrah Novak argued for looking at other proposals from consultant’s other than the ‘captain’s pick’ at the Council Meeting on April 26.

“By just bringing in your captain’s pick denies the rest of the councillors the opportunity to actually get involved in learning how we bring other organisations to the table about how we pick our general manager,” Ms Novak said.

Councillors Peter Johnston and Greg Clancy defended the mayor’s motion arguing that opening up to an expression of interest process would create unnecessary delays.

But Ms Toms argued failing to go to an expression of interest due to a time factor was “absolute rubbish”.

The motion to go with Blackadder and Associates Consulting was passed five votes against four.

Directly after the vote the mayor was asked when councillors would be chosen to be part of the recruitment process.

He answered “Not now, we have plenty of time” to which the public gallery broke into laughter.

The position becomes available on October 7 this year when Ashley Lindsay retires.