CEO compromise

By Sarah Schwager
CASEY councillors are disgusted that their chief executive’s position has been made so public.
It recently became known that council’s Labor faction, councillors Rob Wilson, Kevin Bradford, Wayne Smith, Janet Halsall and Michael Farley, wanted to launch an Australia-wide hunt for Casey CEO Mike Tyler’s job 12 months before his contract expires.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, councillors sparked a heated debate on the pros and cons of advertising for the top job. In the end, the Labor stalwarts won, compromising to start the market-testing process on 1 August, seven months before the CEO’s contract runs out, and not discuss the matter until then.
Advertising for the position means council will have to hire a consultant, with the total process expected to cost about $50,000. Mr Tyler would have to reapply for his job.
Council will also have to raise the CEO’s salary to fall in line with average wages of Australian councils’ CEOs.
Mayor Colin Butler said Mr Tyler’s salary was a lot lower than others in the same job around the country, so they would have no choice but to up the price.
Councillor Mick Morland said discussing the CEO’s job now was “destabilising council staff, council and the whole community”.
Councillor Rob Wilson said the debate needed to be settled now and so agreed to compromise and only bring the market testing forward a month.
“Our CEO is one of the best around,” Cr Wilson said. “It is highly possible that he will retain the position.”
Councillor Janet Halsall said she was very disappointed to have seen the issue splashed across the media and talked about among the community.
Cr Halsall said Mr Tyler was an extremely competent CEO but he had been in the position for a very long time.
“When a contract comes up for renewal, you have to reapply for your position,” she said.
“I am a firm believer of testing the market. It is also an opportunity for the CEO to rank himself against other candidates and to put detractors to rest and people’s minds at ease.”
Mr Tyler has been in the position for 13 years and the position has not been advertised since 1999.
Deputy mayor Kevin Bradford, who has led the push to advertise the position, said he was embarrassed to talk about the issue in front of Mr Tyler.
“Mr Tyler has done fantastic work for the last 13 years, but we don’t know what else is out there. Councillors need to ask themselves what are they so afraid of? I spoke to a lot of (council) staff members and did the research and they understand that the CEO’s position comes up,” Cr Bradford said. It is no more destabilising than when a director’s contract comes up.
“I am sure that the CEO is aware that he cannot be in the position for eternity.”
Councillor Brian Hetherton said advertising the CEO’s position any more than 12 months before the contract expired would create a lame duck CEO, giving him no authority or backing of council.
“I think this is an absolute disgrace.”
Cr Morland said advertising for the position was saying councillors had a lack of confidence in Mr Tyler and council should go through the normal process according to the Local Government Act.