Mayor says no need to rush into new ceo

Baw Baw Shire councillors will not panic and rush into the appointment of a new chief executive officer, according to mayor Joe Gauci.

The shire’s ceo Helen Anstis announced her resignation last week. She will finish on February 8 to take up an executive director position with Service Victoria.

The organisation will be now without two of its senior staff following the resignation of community and corporate services director Liana Thompson in September.

But Cr Gauci assured arrangements were in place and councillors would not rush into replacement staff.

“We don’t want to panic and end up with the wrong person. The important thing is we appoint the right person,” he said.

Despite the organisation having no ceo and missing one director, Cr Gauci said he was confident staff and the organisation would get through without too much burden on staff.

“We have done a tight job with the restructure so we are in a good position where we can keep ticking over

Cr Gauci said arrangements were already in place for finance manager Malcolm, Lewis to continue as the interim community and corporate services director until March.

Councillors are responsible for appointing a chief executive officer while the ceo is responsible for all other positions and appointments within the organisation.

Cr Gauci said councillors would sit down as a council and discuss its plans.

He said he expected an interim ceo would be appointed and then council would begin the recruitment process.

He said the interim ceo may not be a person from within the organisation and there was scope to appoint an interim ceo from outside the organisation.

Cr Gauci said he expected the process of appointing a new ceo could take three months.

”We have to talk to senior management and we will take advice on it. We are in a good spot at the moment and we will not be left with any stress. We have good leadership with the people in place now.

“We will make decisions within the next two to three weeks about how we will handle it,” he said.

When Ms Thompson left in September, Ms Anstis initially indicated the director’s position would be reviewed and not advertised until after the council elections in October.

However, in November, Ms Anstis said it was important for the new council to settle in and the position would be revisited in the new year.

Cr Gauci said it was a “case of seeing whether it was a justified position…that will be a decision for the new ceo.”

Ms Anstis was appointed ceo in 2010. Cr Gauci said Service Victoria, based in Footscray, was closer to Ms Anstis’ family.