The chief executive is the only council employee directly appointed by elected councillors.
Last week, the Waitaki District Council met to conduct the first-term employment review of chief executive Alex Parmley, which under the Local Government Act must be done 12 months prior to the expiration of his initial five-year contract.
Councillors can decide to extend that contract for a two-year period or to advertise the position as vacant (the current chief executive would be able to reapply for the role).
However, mayoral candidate David Wilson is not happy about the chief executive’s review being done prior to October’s local elections.
"I believe any decision on Mr Parmley’s employment should be reserved for the newly-elected council that will take office in November.
"It is undemocratic for an old council to deny the new council this decision.
"I call upon each of the existing councillors to publicly state how they have voted, or will vote, on whether to award this two-year extension to Mr Parmley," he said.
He said the councillors might decline to answer on the grounds that employment contracts should be a private matter.
"While this is true for ordinary employees of the council, it is different for the chief executive, who has independent governance powers and significant control over all council affairs.
"His salary ($358,547 in 2023-24) and the term of his employment contract are public information.
"His tenure in office must be transparent to the public."
Fellow mayoral candidates gave Mr Wilson’s statement short-shrift.
"It would be entirely inappropriate for any candidate to comment on an employment matter," Kelli Williams said.
"Alarmist tactics like these are exactly what we don’t need right now."
Former deputy mayor and mayoral candidate Mel Tavendale agreed.
"While it is easy to go out swinging, mayoral candidates should be demonstrating an understanding of employment law and their role as an employer.
"The new council and mayor will have an opportunity to set the direction and manage the performance of the CEO moving forward but only the current council can measure how he has met expectations over the past term."
A WDC spokesperson told the Otago Daily Times that no further information would be released for the time being.
"We are aware of interest in this matter. As this relates to an employment process, it would be inappropriate for council to comment further at this time.
... Once the process has been completed, council will update the community on its outcome."
The council agenda for the chief executive’s annual and term one review held last week, lists the the grounds for public exclusion to the review as section 48 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, being that part of the proceedings of the meeting would be likely to result in the disclosure of information for which good reason for withholding would exist under section 6 or section 7 of the Act.
Section 7 gives several justifications for excluding public from meetings, including the "privacy of individuals" or, if public conduct of the whole or the relevant part of the proceedings of the meeting would prevent "the free and frank expression of opinions by or between or to members or officers or employees of any local authority in the course of their duty; or the protection of such members, officers, employees, and persons from improper pressure or harassment".
