Whittlesea Council acting CEO Kelvin Spiller to step down at the end of February
The man who replaced former police commissioner Simon Overland as Whittlesea Council boss has announced he will step down just months after taking the top job, continuing the revolving door of chief executives at the embattled local authority.
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Simon Overland’s replacement to lead Whittlesea Council will step down just months after taking the top job at the embattled local authority.
Acting chief executive Kelvin Spiller has told the council he would leave the role at the end of February, just three months after he was appointed in late November last year.
Whittlesea Mayor Emilia Lisa Sterjova said Mr Spiller’s decision was related to personal and other business commitments from March.
The resignation from the acting boss continues a revolving door of chief executives at the outer suburban council, with four others also holding the role in the past three years.
The council troubleshooter was appointed on November 23 to “carefully review” the circumstances which led to Mr Overland taking indefinite leave due to “health and safety” reasons and “difficult” working conditions.
The council then voted to sack the former police commissioner during a closed meeting on December 10.
A State Government monitor was appointed the following afternoon to examine the governance and operations of the council.
Mr Spiller had held eight similar roles, six of which were in local government, including at the Rural City of Wangaratta, City of Greater Geelong and the Mornington Peninsula Council.
A council spokeswoman told the Leader Mr Spiller’s reign “was always intended to be short-term while former chief executive Mr Simon Overland returned from extended health-related leave”.
“Mr Spiller expected this to be for a duration of around three months,” she said.
In a statement, Cr Sterjova said the council would appoint another acting chief executive ahead of his departure on February 28.
“Council would like to thank Mr Spiller for accepting the acting CEO role at short notice and guiding the organisation over the past three months,” she said.
“Mr Spiller has been highly effective in keeping the organisation focused on delivering services to the community since his appointment.”
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At the time of his decision to take indefinite leave, Mr Overland said the situation at the council had been “very difficult now for two years”.
“Despite many attempts over the past two years, I have been unsuccessful in achieving improvement here, and in many respects the behaviours of some councillors have deteriorated, therefore increasing the risks to health and wellbeing,” he wrote in a statement posted on the council’s website.
Mr Overland was Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police from 2009 to 2011.
He finished giving evidence at the Lawyer X royal commission last week.