Lingering ill feeling over a chief executive recruitment dispute preceding last month’s elections has been aired at the first meeting of the new Queenstown Lakes District Council.
The issue flared up during the election campaign after Cr Niki Gladding accused then-mayor Glyn Lewers of improperly "steering or controlling" the process after the council engaged a recruitment agency to help it replace outgoing chief executive Mike Theelen.
Councillors agreed unanimously on Thursday to start the process from scratch, but not before two second-term councillors expressed their annoyance.
Cr Gavin Bartlett said "despite calls to the contrary, we had a recruitment consultant appointed".
"That appointment was completed by staff with the appropriate delegation, with the intention that as a new council, we’d be able to hit the ground running."
Instead, councillors had spent the past six weeks "spinning their wheels" revisiting the issue, Cr Bartlett said.
"It concerns me that a lot of those machinations have happened in small groups, behind closed doors."
They had not "even taken the time or courtesy" to review the previous evaluation or talk to the firm it had engaged.
"Hopefully, from today, we can put the past few weeks behind us and move on, perhaps with slightly more openness and transparency."
Cr Matt Wong said he had been happy with the previous procurement process but would support the motion because the council had to "get moving" on the issue.
In September, Cr Gladding questioned whether proper process had been followed after the council’s chief executive performance review committee, consisting of Mr Lewers and then councillors Lisa Guy and Lyal Cocks, worked with staff to engage the agency, which the Otago Daily Times understood was Jackson Stone & Partners.
At the time, eight of her 10 council colleagues told the ODT they did not share her concerns; deputy mayor Quentin Smith declined to comment, and Cr Esther Whitehead did not respond.
Speaking as a candidate before the election, newly elected mayor John Glover also criticised the process.
He said it appeared to be contrary to auditor-general guidelines and the issue could wait until after the election.
In what will now be a compressed process, the council will advertise for a new recruitment firm on the government’s tendering website for two weeks from next Wednesday.
A council sub-committee of Mr Glover, Cr Smith, and Crs Jon Mitchell and Melissa White will then shortlist the contenders, so a committee of all councillors can consider their recommendation at a meeting in January.
However, with an interim chief executive even more likely to be required after Mr Theelen’s departure on February 14, the subcommittee has also been tasked with recommending candidates for that role, in time for the council’s next full meeting on February 5.
A council spokeswoman confirmed yesterday it had not been required to pay a fee for cancelling the previously appointed firm’s contract.
