Interim CEO for next six months
New Plymouth ratepayers will be paying for an interim chief executive to fly in and work three days a week for the next six months.
The New Plymouth District Council had initially employed its communications manager Jacqueline Baker as acting chief executive following the sudden resignation of Craig Stevenson in July.
But Miriam Taris, a former chief executive at Western Bay of Plenty District Council, has now been contracted as interim chief executive and Baker will return to her former role.
New Plymouth council candidate Max Brough contacted the Daily News yesterday questioning the appointment.
In a response to questions about the appointment, the council said Taris was hired ‘‘to assist council through the election and post-election transition until recruitment of a permanent CEO’’ was completed.
It was not revealed how much Taris would be paid for the six months’ work. Stevenson was believed to have been on an annual salary of $370,000.
New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom said council’s decision to bring in a new interim chief executive was to ‘‘add additional capacity and experience’’ to the executive leadership team.
In July, Holdom had backed Baker to do the job through to the appointment of a new CEO, saying at the time he was confident in her ability and that of council leadership team.
‘‘Council has full confidence in our acting chief executive Jacqueline Baker and our awardwinning senior leadership team to continue to effectively manage the organisation and deliver for our community each day, every day, 24/7/365,’’ Holdom’s statement at the time said.
Baker became acting chief executive on July 8 and was officially appointed to the role later in the month when her salary was adjusted to reflect that appointment.
The council’s leadership team had already been hit with the resignations of deputy chief executive Kelvin Wright and infrastructure boss David Langford this year.
Wright has not been replaced while Langford’s replacement, Kevin Strongman, stood in for Baker at last week’s council meeting.
Brough, who stood as a mayoral candidate at the last election, said the whole situation appeared to be a mess, with poor decisions continually being made.
‘‘It just rolls from one bad decision to another,’’ he said.
‘‘This has now ended up costing ratepayers in the city a lot of money, and it’s going to keep costing us a lot of money until this comes to a conclusion.’’
Brough said it was clear there was a lack of leadership within the council at the moment.
‘‘We’ve seen comments made recently about the confidence of leaders coming up the ranks of the council and that is obviously not working for them.’’
However, Holdom defended the appointment of Taris, saying the council had sought independent advice of Taituara, previously known as the Society of Local Government General Managers, regarding the best practise related to transitional arrangements with several outstanding vacancies on its leadership team.
‘‘The advice we received was that the most prudent way forward would be to bring in a seasoned senior executive on a fixed-term contract to increase the capacity of our executive leadership team and assist with the transition of what will be a different council following the October election,’’ he said.
‘‘The decision to appoint an interim CEO reflects the governance team’s focus on ensuring NPDC continues to deliver for the people of the district each day, every day, all day.’’
He also defended the work of Baker since Stevenson resigned.
‘‘Jacqueline has stepped up as we faced the issues relating to our former CEO,’’ he said.
‘‘She has managed to juggle her already significant role with the responsibilities of the CEO at a time of peak work within NPDC and has done a great job, supported by our highly capable executive leadership team.’’
Taris, who will not be applying for the role of permanent CEO, acted as an interim CEO at South Waikato District Council earlier this year.