Central Coast Council has an acting CEO, a recruitment panel, and one seat on it that is not a councillor

David Farmer retires as chief executive on 2 September, after five and a half years in the job. He took it in April 2021, with the council under administration following its financial collapse, and as we set out on Sunday, he leaves an organisation whose finances have been rebuilt and which is now positioning itself for major projects. Councillors used tonight's meeting to acknowledge that record and to put the transition arrangements in place.

The acting appointment

Mr Loader takes the role while the permanent search runs. Mayor Lawrie McKinna described the appointment as essential to maintaining organisational stability for staff and residents during the transition, and said council's priority is “to ensure stable leadership as we move through this process”.

The mayor described Mr Loader as an experienced local government executive with a background in water and sewer operations, environmental health, development assessment, compliance, asset management and emergency management. For a council whose water and sewer business is one of its largest operations, and whose recovery has been a story about operational discipline, that is a relevant set of credentials rather than a generic one.

The panel, and the delegation

This is the part of tonight's decision with the longest tail. Council appointed a CEO Recruitment Panel comprising Cr McKinna, Cr Mouland, Cr Crowley, Cr MacGregor, Cr McNamara and Cr Stanton, together with independent member Kath Roach, managing director of SINC Solutions. The panel has been delegated authority to oversee the recruitment and selection process.

Delegated authority is not the same as making the decision. On council's own account, the appointment of a permanent chief executive “will be subject to a resolution of Council following completion of the recruitment and selection process”. So the panel runs the search and the shortlist; the whole chamber makes the call. Council also says all available councillors will get a workshop or facilitated discussion with the independent panel member and the appointed recruitment consultant, to help settle what capabilities the next chief executive needs.

Council states the process will follow the Local Government Act 1993 and the Office of Local Government's Guidelines for the Appointment and Oversight of General Managers. Mayor McKinna said council is committed to “a rigorous, merit-based recruitment process”.

Why the independent seat matters

Our view, and it is a view. The single most consequential detail here is the independent member. Recruiting a chief executive is the one decision a council makes about its own administration, and it is the decision where a chamber's internal politics has the most room to operate. Putting an outside professional on the panel, and running capability workshops with all available councillors rather than only panel members, are both structural choices that make the process harder to steer. Whether they work is not something anyone can judge tonight, but they are the right shape.

The thing to watch is not the panel. It is the gap between the panel's recommendation and the chamber's resolution. That is where a recruitment process either holds or does not, and it is a moment that will be minuted.

What happens next

Mr Farmer finishes on 2 September and Mr Loader steps up. The recruitment consultant and the capability workshops come first, then a search, then a shortlist, then a resolution of the full council. No timeline for that final step has been published, and we will not invent one. We will report the resolution when it comes.