City of Greater Geelong CEO Ali Wastie brings in return to office mandates

The City of Greater Geelong’s new chief executive officer has chalked up 100 days in the top job and is now ordering staff to return to the council’s $102m office.

The new City of Greater Geelong CEO, Ali Wastie. Picture: Mark Wilson

City Hall staff will be ordered back to the office for 60 per cent of the working week, while the new executive team will work solely from council’s $102m Mercer St headquarters.

New chief executive officer Ali Wastie, who has just chalked up 100 days in the top role, said bringing back workers was key to reigniting the city’s vibrancy and maintaining an innovative culture in the organisation.

“We’re moving back to a back to the office as well, so all of the executive team will be back to the office anmd what I mean by that is 100 per cent office based,” Ms Wastie said.

She said a mandated number of days in the office was “best practice” and needed to create a “really high performing culture and organisation”.

“That’s the requirement.”

So committed is Ms Wastie to having workers in the office, she debunked claims the City of Greater Geelong would consider selling its HQ.

When asked if a sale was being considered amid a budget black hole, Ms Wastie simply said: “No it’s not”.

“One of my key focuses has been focusing on our long term sustainability,” she said.

“And I’m pleased to note that we are forecasting a surplus - an operating surplus - for this coming financial year, which will put us in good stead to continue to deliver services for our community.”

Ms Wastie described council’s HQ – Wurriki Nyal – as a “magnificent building (which) really leans into our city of design aspirations”.

She said council was looking at a “whole range of options” in terms of finding a tenant for an unoccupied section of the building, but said it was important for the community to see it “activated” and to be able to use and access the space.

Ms Wastie said she also expected $80m worth of stalled projects, sidelined due to financial constraints, would go ahead in the 2024-25 financial year.

The new City of Greater Geelong CEO, Ali Wastie, started work today Monday Picture: Mark Wilson

Headhunted from Bass Coast Shire in Victoria’s southeast, and believed to be on a salary of more than $400,000, Ms Wastie has moved to the Geelong region with husband Andrew and their two teenage sons.

Ms Wastie, who has a twin sister and older brother, grew up in Melbourne but has a long connection to the area.

Her father was born in Portarlington, her great grandfather was a Portarlington Mayor and her mother has lived in Ocean Grove for 20 years.

Fluent in French, with a degree in diplomacy and having lived in England and Japan, Ms Wastie is also an executive coach who hopes her unique skill set will help her to smooth over council’s well-documented cultural problems.

Ms Wastie said she felt the culture had already improved since her start date and said she would continue to focus on ensuring anyone who worked at the city had a good experience and was supported in their role.

After 19 roles were made redundant at council in April, Ms Wastie said no positions were lost in the latest realignment and said cuts were “not on the horizon”.

On council’s fractious relationship with the state government Ms Wastie said it was improving, and vowed to continue to advocate for the city to get its fair share of government funding.

She said the political alignments of councillors, including Liberal aligned Mayor Trent Sullivan, did not make it more difficult when dealing with a Labor government – claiming all were “very professional”.

“ … that is not uncommon in any council for councillors to have political affiliations,” she said.

“The reality is, though, that they are here to represent their communities – that’s what they’re elected to do.

“So party politics stays out of it.”

Responding to Mr Sullivan’s pointed letter asking the state government to redirect Commonwealth Games funding from an Armstrong Creek pool to an indoor stadium, Ms Wastie said council would “continue to strive” for that indoor facility.

She said council monitors, installed by the state government, were still in place and said it was a “bit of a misnomer that they were there just to see the CEO recruitment process. They weren’t ... I welcome them,” Ms Wastie said.

For her next 100 days Ms Wastie wants to focus on making Geelong Australia’s highest performing council to reflect its status as what she sees as being the country’s best regional city.

But, ever a realist, Ms Wastie is aware the city has perennial problems – including the increasingly vacant Market Square shopping centre and concerns about a dying CBD.

Ms Wastie admitted there were limits on what council could do about the privately owned shopping centre, but said it could facilitate ideas and “put pressure on the owners to do something”.

“We can’t force the developers to sell, we can’t force the developers to reduce their rents. And we can’t force people to shop there,” she said.

Originally published as City of Greater Geelong CEO Ali Wastie brings in return to office mandates