Two insiders and two outsiders have been named in the new slimline executive leadership team at Taupō District Council.
Council chief executive Gareth Green presaged a review of senior staffing in late January that would cut seven positions down to four, but his new broom has only dusted off two current department heads while uncovering two recruits from outside the organisation.
The management review would “enable the organisation to face current and future challenges and capitalise on important opportunities for the district,” noted this week’s announcement of the new officeholders.
It named Julie Gardyne, currently the general manager strategy and transformation at Whakatāne District Council, as the new deputy chief executive officer – re-establishing a position ditched in 2011 when the TDC flattened out its management structure.
Gardyne had a strong economic development and strategy background, said the release, as well as considerable involvement in Civil Defence emergencies and the “recovery process”.
The other new face was chartered accountant Andrew Peckham, appointed as general manager corporate.
While new to local government, Peckham has worked in various commercial areas including in Taupō with Mercury Energy.
The two retained from the previous seven-strong executive team were John Ridd, general manager policy and strategy, and Kevin Strongman, general manager operations and delivery.
Ridd has held various TDC roles for the past 18 years, including head of economic development and business transformation, while former head of operations, Strongman will continue in that role, as well as taking on new portfolios including the airport, events and venues.
Strongman had “a wide-ranging engineering and management background along with extensive local government experience across a wide range of areas,” said the release.
Green said the council was fortunate to be able “to attract an executive team of this calibre” and that he was excited about bringing the team together “to build on the great work that we have been doing.”
He also acknowledged outgoing staff who, he said “are moving on to explore new chapters of their own journeys. They have done an amazing job over the years, through many changes and challenges. This new executive team is inheriting an organisation that has a very solid foundation as a result of this hard work and dedication”.
Naming the new top four is not the end of Green’s realignment process.
“We are now in the process of the next level of management change, and this will progress over coming months, he wrote in his February performance report, which is to be presented to councillors at a meeting on March 30.
The council’s communication team would not confirm who among the remaining former senior executive team were remaining at the council, saying they were legally obligated to maintain employees’ privacy, but on March 16 Stuff received a goodbye email from former head of communications and customer relations Lisa Nairne which said she was in her last hours at the council.
Nor could the TDC provide the amount spent with Hamilton-based three-person consulting firm Greg Tims and Associates for the review, saying the process was still underway so there wasn’t a final cost.
In January, Green said he had been working with the consultants since August 2020.
His announcement, then, noted: “Essentially, we are likely looking at a higher overall headcount for the organisation, but investing at a level that will achieve the same or similar remuneration costs to the business as what we have currently”.
According to the 2019-20 TDC Annual Report, the council spent $1,806,000 in wages for the chief executive and senior leadership team of seven.
Within that, the total remuneration (including any non-financial benefits) paid or payable for the 2020 year to the chief executive was $331,193, compared to $312,593 in 2019.
Overall the council’s wage bill, June 2019 to June 2020, was $23,830,000 with only one person in the top band of $240,000 to $339,999 and seven earning between $180,000 to $239,999.
Of the TDC’s 376 employees, 195 earned less than $60,000.
Credit: Stuff.co.nz
