Council jumped the gun on CEO: Wood

INDEPENDENT MLA Gerry Wood says the appointment of a new Palmerston CEO is ‘undemocratic’

Independent MLA Gerry Wood says the appointment of a new Palmerston CEO is ‘undemocratic’

INDEPENDENT MLA Gerry Wood has slammed the Territory Government for its handling of the appointment of the new Palmerston Council chief executive, labelling it “undemocratic”.

The council last week appointed former Darwin Council city operations general manager Luccio Cercarelli for an initial term of two years.

But Mr Wood hit out at the decision yesterday, saying the appointment should not have been made prior to the election of the next crop of councillors.

“The announcement this week that a CEO had been appointed for Palmerston City Council before the new council was elected is undemocratic and removes the right of the newly elected council to select its own CEO,” the member for Nelson said.

“The question here is not about whether the new CEO is capable of doing the job, it is the manner in which the appointment has been made.”

Mr Wood said the Government should have installed a temporary replacement for the previous CEO until the new council was elected.

“Section 100(4) of the Local Government Act states the CEO is appointed by the council. One would expect that it would not be the role of the Government’s official manager to appoint a CEO knowing that council elections would commence in the new year,” he said.

“Or is this a case of the Government knows what’s best and agreed to the appointment, showing that it couldn’t trust a new council with the responsibility of electing its own CEO?

“It doesn’t show much faith in good governance or local government.”

Territory Government minister Gerry McCarthy placed the Palmerston council into administration and suspended all its aldermen in June this year.

Previous chief executive Ricki Bruhn tendered his resignation in September and new council elections are scheduled for March.

Mr McCarthy was contacted for comment but was unavailable before deadline yesterday.