Unlucky 13 Living In The Farce Lane
Newcastle Herald
Saturday June 21, 2008
IT has taken City Hall eight months to schedule interviews with prospective general managers and, with an interview panel to include all 13 councillors, community critics fear the recruitment drive has become a farce.
It could be another four months before the successful candidate begins work, meaning the council elected in September will have to live with its predecessor's decision.That scenario would also mean that almost a year had passed since former general manager Janet Dore resigned last October.Interviews with six candidates are due to be completed by the end of the month. Councillors have had weekly confidential meetings since February about the recruitment process, delaying the beginning of public meetings by one to two hours.Throsby Community Forum chairman John Hayes said it was alarming that all 13 councillors would interview prospective candidates.Mr Hayes said it appeared councillors did not trust one another enough to delegate the task."You can imagine yourself being in an interview being confronted by all 13 councillors who are not working as a team who are all interested in asking questions about their own particular interests," he said."Potentially this is a recipe for disaster."Mr Hayes said several councillors were not seeking another term at the September election and therefore would not be working with the new general manager.Community activist Tony Brown said a 13-member selection panel beggared belief and would make Newcastle a laughing stock."Selection should be left to the new council in September," he said.Newcastle Lord Mayor John Tate said that when Ms Dore was appointed every councillor was at the interview and the process worked well with certain guidelines.It took about five months to appoint Ms Dore.Cr Tate said he would have liked the present process to move a bit more quickly but the emphasis had to be on getting it right, not rushing.He said he expected a new general manager to be appointed by the middle of next month. But the successful candidate is likely to have to give notice of between four and 12 weeks to their present employer before he or she can begin work at City Hall.Some councillors believe the recruitment drive has gone on too long."It does seem an inordinately long time, I've got to admit," Cr Barry Scully said.He conceded that having 13 councillors on the interview panel could be "an issue".Cr Helene O'Neill said the time being taken to appoint a general manager was already longer than the length of the campaign between US Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama and rival Hillary Clinton.She said interviews with prospective general managers would have to be very structured and streamlined to make the participation of 13 councillors work.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald