Northern Beaches Council CEO Ray Brownlee to double the number of deputies he has
The new CEO of the Northern Beaches Council, Ray Brownlee, will have the amount of deputies that answer to him doubled — but not everyone is happy with the decision, with one councillor describing the move as ‘out of step with community expectations’.
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NEW chief executive officer of the Northern Beaches Council, Ray Brownlee will have the amount of deputies that answer to him doubled from three to six.
It follows a confidential briefing at Tuesday’s council meeting, in which a majority of councillors voted to move toward a new organisation structure “funded by recruitment savings”.
The vote followed to a motion passed in February to review the council’s senior management structure.
Mayor Michael Regan said the structural review was a requirement of all new councils under the local government act.
He said the more defined roles would help the council better meet its structural goals.
“Given the size and capacity of our organisation, council has moved to a more flat, corporate structure, better aligned to the pillars of our Community Strategic Plan,” he said.
“We believe the new structure will better position council to deliver the services and infrastructure that our community expect, in a more timely and efficient way.”
The move has been criticised by independent councillor Vincent De Luca, who was the only person to vote against the decision.
He said the money could have been better spent on community services and infrastructure.
“Our council now has a CEO who is paid more than most heads of State Government Departments, Ministers of Government, District Court Judges and Magistrates,” he said.
“To now double the next layer of bureaucracy to six directors with each on a salary range of $300,000 to nearly $400,000 is completely out of step with community expectations.”
“The termination earlier this year of the contract of the previous CEO, Mark Ferguson, not even a year into this new Council, with his “agreed” golden hand shake proposed by Mayor Michael Regan and the additional recruitment expenses this cost rate payers nearly $500,000”.
Cr De Luca said the merger of Manly, Warringah and Pittwater promised streamlined service, bureaucracy cuts and reduced rates.
“We have seen a huge increase in expenditure on the bureaucracy, a 60 per cent increase in rates in some suburbs and people and particularly in the old Pittwater Council area are crying out that their services have been cut and infrastructure neglected,” he said.
“This money for additional Executives could have been spent on more foot paths, surf clubs and sport fields renewals, better roads, community services, infrastructure and rate reductions”.
But Cr Regan said the savings made through amalgamation “have enabled us to get on with delivering tens of millions of dollars of much need infrastructure and the new structure will ensure this continues apace.
“Efficiencies continue to be made and we are on track to deliver and exceed the savings promised by our merger,” Cr Regan said.
“While these organisational structural changes are important for the delivery of services and infrastructure to our community, they will have little to no impact on most existing positions within council so will be able to be delivered within the current 2018/19 operational budget.”
The council currently has three general managers: Ben Taylor (environment and infrastructure); David Kerr (planning, place and community) and Helen Lever (customer and corporate)
These positions will be replaced with six director roles, which are:
- Director of environmental sustainability;
- Director of community and belonging;
- Director of corporate and legal
- Director of workforce and technology
- Director of transport and assets
- Director of planning and place
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