Cr Bob Proudfoot Speaks Out
In mere minutes, social media commentary exploded after the announcement yesterday from Mayor Patricia White that ex-Liberal career politician Andrew Constance was Shoalhaven City Council's new CEO.
After months of speculation, aggravation and lack of communication from Council, one selection committee member, Cr Bob Proudfoot, has given a forthright and detailed interview to Spark available here.
Cr. Proudfoot speaks frankly about Andrew Constance, other candidates he preferred, the process he found flawed and fraught and the formal complaints he and others have submitted to the Office of Local Government.
Most significantly, Cr Proudfoot talks about how this drawn-out saga to find a CEO has fractured his bond with the Shoalhaven Independent Group party and altered his relationships with other councillors in the chamber.
(https://youtu.be/6JbL4xTTWv0?si=5zxWebDgspChNjlz)
Cr Proudfoot illuminated some crucial aspects of this controversy:
- A highly qualified candidate for CEO was originally selected after a long first confidential meeting. But in the week that followed, that candidate refused the lucrative offer. Why? No-one knows, or is allowed to say.
- That led councillors back to a second confidential session to vote again on the remaining shortlisted candidates. Andrew Constance was successful this time, but a rescission motion to challenge the appointment was filed within a minute of the vote. Bizarrely, that rescission was immediately rejected on the grounds that the offer had already been enacted. Wow, that happened fast.
It seems inevitable now that this CEO choice will trigger yet more investigation of Shoalhaven Council's functioning.
Please excuse the sound quality of this interview and focus on the unique insight Cr Proudfoot has offered to Shoalhaven's ratepaying public about what Andrew Constance's appointment means to Shoalhaven's planning and environment decisions as well as to the way Shoalhaven Council is publicly perceived.
With council likely split down the middle over the selection, and the rancorous, politicised process, Constance's new job will certainly lead to more anger over and scrutiny of Shoalhaven council functions under Mayor Patricia White.
Hundreds of comments and reactions were posted under Fiona Phillips' scathing assessment of the appointment, mainly supporting her statement of "no confidence" in the Constance CEO contract that she called "political bastardry".
With his public Facebook post, Cr Jason Cox appealed to some conservative Constance supporters who made it clear that allegiance, not qualification, was reason to celebrate.
Constance is the fourth Council CEO in less than 12 months after Shoalhaven Independent Group Mayor and councillors wasted no time pushing CEO Robyn Stevens to resign and negotiating an undisclosed payout.
The installation of the Shoalhaven Independent Group favourite exec., James Ruprai (as internal emails confirmed) didn't stick – he jumped ship as soon as he saw a swimmable shoreline.
The recent acting CEO, Brian Barrett, departed yesterday, immediately upon Constance being announced in the role, signalling that he would play no part in any handover training that some suggested was needed for a new CEO not experienced in local governance.
