North Shore Times (New Zealand)
The high-risk life of a council CEO
ANALYSIS: The resignation of Auckland Council chief executive Jim Stabback was no surprise.
Five months after the election of tough-talking Wayne Brown as mayor – and his promise of sweeping change – no one’s world changed as drastically on the October 8 election day as Stabback’s.
Chief executives are the one and only employee of an elected council, and the CEO then employs everyone else.
When there’s a new boss, especially a figure who campaigned on change, the CEO can face a whole new ball game.
Brown on the campaign trail was openly critical about the council organisation, calling middle management over-paid and said too many people were writing reports.
He wanted all the directors of all council agencies to resign, a fanciful notion he was never in a position to make happen, although three did from Auckland Transport.
Relations were strained from day one as Brown arrived with a small crew of campaign staff, none of whom knew local government and none of whom intended to stay, except for now chief-of-staff Max Hardy – considered by insiders as the most relatable of Brown’s crew.
For Stabback, who came to the job as a newcomer to politics, the environment changed suddenly and significantly.
He had led a council that made strong political and organisational commitments to tackle climate change, only to find the new boss grudging about the need to significantly cut emissions.
Brown’s blunt personality can’t have helped but the way the political cycle intersects with corporate leadership contracts makes election days high-risk events.
Stabback is leaving for ‘‘personal reasons’’, the announcement said.
Auckland Council was formed in 2010 following the amalgamation of eight local bodies, and its first chief executive, Doug McKay, was employed on only an 18-month contract.
That gave both he and his employer a chance to check in on how the establishment of the biggest local body in Australasia was going, and they agreed to push on until the 2013 election.
McKay returned to corporate life. His successor, public sector senior executive Stephen Town, completed one electoral cycle before getting a contract extension which he left a few months early to take up a new role.
Stabback’s contract was for five years, pitching him through one election into the second half of his time.
His successor at least will be able to go in with eyes open.
It is a choice the newly recruited chief executive of council agency Auckland Transport opted not to take.
The UK-based executive was hired during a council term in which emissions reduction and climate change would be the driving focus on AT. But it was clearly not how Brown saw the organisation.
Brown was advised to meet the preferred candidate but chose not to, and however that choice was interpreted, the would-be CEO pulled the plug, and left AT with neither a CEO nor a chairperson.
Brown and the council now have to find a new employee. One who can navigate the stillunclear politics of the years ahead, and might be well-advised to make election day 2025 the time to decide whether to renew.