Lisa Guy: questions over CEO recruitment 'disrespectful and inaccurate.'

Councillor Lisa Guy has accused Councillor Niki Gladding of making “allegations that are both inaccurate and outside the standards of respectful governance” around the early, secretive recruitment of a replacement council CEO.

Both Niki Gladding and mayoral candidate John Glover have raised a number of questions around Mayor Lewer’s behind closed doors work to activate the recruitment of a new CEO prior to the local elections on October 11.

Councillors Guy and Cocks, along with Mayor Lewers, form the three person, public excluded committee that oversees the pay and performance of the council CEO. It was this group that awarded Mr Theelen a 15% pay rise last year at the same time as the council’s own community trust and satisfaction survey dropped to an all time low.

While saying “everything is transparent” she urges Mr Glover to apply for documents under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) which gives the council until after the local elections on October 11 - and in many cases sees information withheld partially or totally by the council’s governance and democracy team. 80% of complaints to the Chief Ombudsman have found QLDC to have wrongfully withheld LGOIMA information.

In email to John Glover, Councillor Guy makes the following points (below).

Unlike Mr Glover’s email to all councillors, Councilor Guy appears not to have copied any media.

Underneath Councillor Guy’s email we publish John Glover’s full reply.

From Lisa Guy to John Glover. September 21.

“To whom it may concern, The Chief Executive recruitment is being carried out in line with QLDC’s established policies and the Local Government Act.

Delegation: Authority to procure an external recruitment firm sits with Council staff, not the CE Performance Review Committee, nor individual Councillors.

Procurement: A full and documented procurement process was led by Councils Procurement Manager and followed normal government standards.

Decision Making: The appointment of the Chief Executive will be made by full Council. As has always been the case. To opinion otherwise is unnecessarily inflammatory. However - I understand that may have been the intent.

All documentation - including the procurement plan, evaluation records and meeting notes - is subject to release under Local Government Offical Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA). The LGOIMA team determine what information meets LGOIMA criteria not individual Councillors.

I am confident those records will confirm the process has been transparent and robust.

I note Councillor Gladding's recent social-media opinions and comments implying impropriety on my part are unfounded and inappropriate, and I trust that the documented process speaks for itself. I won't be engaging further on allegations that are both inaccurate and outside the standards of respectful governance.

My hope is that the incoming Council will be afforded the best opportunity to appoint a new chief executive following sound process.”

Cllr Lisa Guy (Sent from my I -Phone, On the move, On a Sunday)

From John Glover to Lisa Guy. September 21.

“To Lisa, cc Mayor and Councillors]

Lisa, thank you for your note about the CEO recruitment process.

I presume that you are sending this on behalf of the CE Performance Review Committee that you are on with the Mayor and Councillor Cocks?

My concerns remain the same. There is low trust in Council, and we’re in the final stages of an election. To push the CEO recruitment through now is ill-timed, inappropriate, ill-advised and has seriously bad optics even if as you suggest there are delegations in place for recruitment spend.

There is no reason for a secretive, exclusive process behind closed doors, and there is plenty of time to get this right.

Further, suggesting that anyone who wants information - including presumably Councillors will need to do so under the sluggish LGOIMA official information mechanisms is frankly ridiculous. There should be transparency around this process for all Councillors, now. They should be fully involved, right from the outset.

Finally, you’re presumably familiar with the guidance given by the Office of the Auditor General on Council recruitment of a new CEO? There is very clear guidance around the importance of participation of ALL elected members (see 5.14-5.16), the appointment of a recruiter (5.21), and how staff should or should not be involved (5.22). There is also guidance which states at 5.34 “We suggest that councils consider the most appropriate time to recruit a new chief executive, avoiding where possible periods immediately preceding or following an election.”

It is certainly possible to follow this guidance now. In light of all of the above, this process should be much more open, transparent and help to BUILD not further ERODE trust in QLDC.

As per my previous email, this recruitment process should be paused immediately.

Kind regards John Glover

PS Thank you for replying on a Sunday. I am sure members of the community consider this serious enough for Council to be responding swiftly.”