New Westland District Council chief executive Simon Bastion says he is looking forward not backwards as he hit the ground running this week.
He replaces returning acting chief executive Robin Reeves, who was called back to fill in at the top since the exit of former chief executive Tanya Winter in April. Ms Winter had replaced Mr Reeves in the role.
The annual report last week revealed that Ms Winter received an $85,000 golden handshake after filing a personal grievance against the incoming council when it refused to renew her five-year contract.
The council responded by suspending Ms Winter while allegations of serious misconduct were investigated in relation to her failure to alert the mayor and councillors to the ongoing Serious Fraud Office investigation into the activities of former district assets group manager Vivek Goel.
Mr Bastion, who had a short stint on the council-owned Westland Holdings Ltd last year, said yesterday he was starting the job with a "new line in the sand".
"I'm not going to focus on historical stuff... to me it's about what's next."
Since Monday he has been meeting staff and getting a footing with future planning. He also attended his first West Coast mayoral forum, held in Westport, experiencing the political side of the job.
After 25 years in the dairy industry, mostly in Southland, Mr Bastion came to the West Coast to work for Westland Milk Products, being general manager of operations.
At the dairy factory he was responsible for 200 staff, compared to 50 at the council.
While it was a downsize in scale it was definitely not a downsize in responsibility, he said.
In effect, he had swapped farming shareholders for ratepayers.
"The dairy is all driven by shareholders, so working towards making sure their business is running well. It's the same for ratepayers . . . the only difference in this position is everything you do is more transparent."
He would endeavour to strive for more transparency, he said.
"I like transparency, particularly if you have a solid plan and everyone knows where you're going, there's no surprises."
He believed it was a good time to "jump on board" ,going into the review of the first three years of the long-term plan.
The key would be budgeting over the next seven years what Westland could afford and what could be deferred.
Other than the overspending identified in the annual report, he could not see anything "concerning" ahead of the council.
"The underlying bones of council are still solid. There are areas where we need to step up, that's understood, and there are vacancies that we need to fill which are critical for our success."
Those were largely operational roles; operations manager, transport manager and district assets group manager.
At the same time Mr Bastion said he was looking forward to being part of a proactive council and being involved in executing the long-term plans for the region, along with the other regional stakeholders
"I believe Westland has so much to offer not only for West Coasters but for the rest of the world, and bringing people on our doorstep and showing them what we have is paramount.
"Underpinning all of that is supporting ratepayers to be able to afford the luxury of being able to bring people here. It doesn't come without its burdens and making sure that its affordable along the process so we don't inundate ratepayers with costs they can't afford."
Westland District Council posted a $2.1 million deficit for the end of the financial year to June 30, having forecast earlier to make a surplus of $1.2 million.
- by Janna Sherman of the Hokitika Guardian
