Interim shire ceo appointed
A Baw Baw Shire director has been appointed interim chief executive officer, but for how long is unknown.
Chief executive officer Helen Anstis, who announced her resignation five weeks ago, will finish tomorrow.
A special confidential meeting of councillors last week confirmed the appointment of community assets director Phil Cantillon as interim ceo.
Mayor Joe Gauci explained council was required to appoint an interim ceo to take over duties once Ms Anstis leaves. However, he said council was still considering options and may appoint a more long term interim ceo.
Mr Cantillon will undertake the role until an alternative interim or permanent ceo is appointed. Cr Gauci said Mr Cantillon was more than qualified to undertake the interim role but did not elaborate how long he would be in the chair.
Cr Gauci said councillors were still considering its options leading up to the appointment of a new ceo.
Cr Gauci said councillors had a number of options including retaining Mr Cantillon as the interim ceo or seeking someone from outside the organisation to assume the role.
He said there was a pool of candidates available for interim positions. He said council’s human resources department staff were looking at who was available and would report back to council.
Alternatively, if appointing another interim ceo could be a lengthy process, he said council may decide to proceed straight to the process of appointing a new ceo.
“We have to decide whether we do that (another interim ceo) or just keep ticking over and appoint a new ceo,” he said.
Mr Cantillon’s appointment will now leave a gap in the organisation, requiring someone to step up in an acting role for his position.
Cr Gauci said Mr Cantillon would appoint someone but there were a couple of people that could step up without placing any further pressure on staff.
“At the moment the organisation, after the restructure, is ticking along pretty good,” he said.
Council’s corporate and community services director Liana Thompson also left last year and has not been replaced. Finance manager Malcolm Lewis is acting in that position.
Cr Gauci said the corporate and community services director position would be reviewed later in the year when a new ceo “will look at that.”
Cr Gauci expects it will be a six month process to appoint a new ceo by the time council engages a recruitment agency, seeks application, short lists and interviews candidates.
“Council as a whole will decide on the appointment. It won’t be a panel, it will be the whole council,” he said.
Mr Cantillon joined Baw Baw Shire in 2012. He said he was looking forward to taking on the interim role and working with councillors, staff and the community while the search for a permanent CEO continued.
“This is an exciting opportunity and I’m honoured that the council have chosen me to step up and lead the organisation through this interim period,” Mr Cantillon said.
Cr Gauci said Mr Cantillon’s many decades of leadership and management within various levels of government made him an exceptional choice.
“With Phil having been with the organisation for almost five years it made sense for us to appointment him to lead the organisation during this period, as he already holds a lot of knowledge around the work that we do.
Cr Gauci said in accordance with council’s procurement policy, human resources manager Andrew Mifsud would work with council to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced recruitment agency.