Dubbo council interim CEO Dean Frost replaced after 2 months

The interim CEO of a council in western NSW has been replaced two months after he was appointed and as infighting among councillors intensifies.

The Dubbo mayor has sensationally vowed to overturn a decision made by a majority of councillors which paves the way for the council’s current interim CEO to be dumped with two weeks notice and replaced with a former staff member.

At a council meeting on Monday night Cr Kevin Parker moved a motion calling for former council director Murray Wood to be appointed council’s new interim general manager.

Dubbo councillor Kevin Parker at the May 24, 2021 council meeting. Picture: Ryan Young

The move was supported by Cr Stephen Lawrence, Vicki Etheridge, Jane Diffey, Anne Jones and John Ryan.

It means council’s current interim CEO Dean Frost, who was appointed in February, can be dumped and pushed back to a director role with two weeks notice.

The decision of councillors also sets a 12-month time limit on Mr Wood’s tenure and calls Local Government NSW Management Solutions to undertake recruitment of a new general manager before Mr Woods’s one year in the job is up.

Mayor Ben Shields slammed the move and said he thought it was “a pretty poor effort”.

“This was brought on by a last-minute amendment, I understand there was a group of councillors who met and discussed this earlier.

“To stop this process I will be lodging a rescission motion.”

Dubbo mayor Ben Shields was not impressed at the May 24, 2021 council meeting. Picture: Ryan Young

Cr Shields said he found the move baffling because he and Cr Lawrence sat on a recruitment panel to appoint Mr Frost to the role in February.

Cr Lawrence told The Dubbo News he approached Mr Wood to take on the role.

“We decided to change course because of the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in,” Cr Lawrence said.

“I want to thank Dean Frost for his service, he’s done a good job and this is no reflection on him.

“The majority of councillors formed the view that we need someone who’s both an outside and insider, someone that has a really good understanding of the organisation and is highly respected in the community and a man of great capacity, but somebody who hasn’t been here during these events.”

Dubbo council interim CEO Dean Frost was thanked for his service after a majority of councillors voted to replace him. Picture: Ryan Young

Cr Lawrence stressed he was not reflecting on the performance of staff and that Mr Wood would “steer the ship at this really difficult time”.

“He’s someone that’s very well known in the region, he’s very popular among the broader community, he’s currently in a senior position with the state government.

“He’s got a very broad range of experience and he’s someone that we just have a lot of confidence in.”

To avoid a “media circus” Cr Lawrence said not all councillors were consulted before the move to dump Mr Frost was made.

“It’s regrettable that the circumstances are such that we couldn’t consult with the three members of the Ben Shields team,” Cr Lawrence said.

“I just knew that if we consulted with them it would become a complete media circus and it’s not appropriate when you’re talking about employment matters.”

Murray Wood has a tough task ahead of him. Picture: NSW Government

Cr Shields’s plan to lodge a rescission motion was slammed by Cr Lawrence.

“It’s designed to do nothing but to delay the inevitable and to project a sense of dysfunction in the community,” he said.

“It clearly won’t succeed … any criticism that is made of the appointment on the basis of proximity to the election is just political game playing.

“The mayor has lost control of the council...the majority of councillors have made a decision tonight that they think is in the best interests of the community.”

Ben Shields Team member and staunch ally Cr Dayne Gumley said it was the initial motion lodged by Cr Parker which made the council appear dysfunctional.

“We’ve got a group of councillors that want a particular outcome in relation to the CEO, there were other councillors who were completely blindsided by this and not involved in the consultation or reasons behind it at all,” Cr Gumley said.

“I think in the community there’s probably a big collective eye roll

“The community just wants us to get on with the job they elected us to do. I think this council has done really impressive over its term, it’s only these latest developments that have tarnished a lot of those efforts.”

The move to dump Mr Frost after two months in the role would create further instability in the upper echelons of the council.

Mark Riley was the inaugural general manager of the council which was elected for the first time in 2017 after the NSW Government forcibly merged Dubbo City and Wellington Shire councils.

His contract was terminated two months after Cr Shields became mayor, for “personal reasons”.

In 2018 the man tasked with acting in the top job, Michael McMahon, was appointed for a five-year term.

He retired at the end of March after the mayor attempted to take his own life.

Dean Frost was announced as interim CEO in February 2021 and started in the role in April.

Murray Wood will be the fourth person in the top job in less than four years.

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