MidCoast councillors elected a panel to undertake council's general manager's performances reviews at the ordinary meeting on February 23
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Mayor Clare Pontin and deputy mayor Alan Tickle were included on the panel as per the guidelines on general managers' performance reviews from the Office of Local Government.
There were three expressions of interest for the third position on the panel, these being from Cr Paul Sandilands, Cr Peter Epov and Cr Dheera Smith.
Cr Epov proposed that the deputy mayor not be included on the panel to leave the panel open for two councillors plus the mayor. However Cr Pontin said that they were following the Office of Local Government guidelines.
The Office of Local Government also gives the option for the general manager to nominate a fourth councillor of his choosing to the panel, however general manager, Adrian Panuccio declined the option.
A straw poll was taken for the third position on the panel. Cr Sandilands was elected into the position with six votes, Cr Epov getting four votes and Cr Dheera Smith one.
Cr Epov then talked of adding more positions to the panel.
"I think there are opportunities to have larger groups of people measure performance, It doesn't strictly have to be three or four people. In some instances some councils do include the entire body of council," he said.
Cr Pontin responded, "We are reverting to the Office of Local Government recommended processes."
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Cr Pontin assured the councillors they would all have input into the performance review process whether they had a position on the panel or not.
"The process will be that I seek input from all councillors at the appropriate times of this process," she said. "It can either be done anonymously or not, as people choose. It will be done in a thorough way and it will be taken up by the panel.
"The issue is that we cannot have a process where we have 11 councillors sitting in a room performing a performance appraisal. That will not work, it's not fair, it's not reasonable.
"That process will be undertaken with due diligence and all issues raised by councillors will be taken on board by that panel."
The motion for the election of the panel was carried with councillors Katheryn Smith, Dheera Smith, Tickle, West, Sandilands, Miller, Fowler, and Pontin voting for, and councillors Epov, Bell and Fowler voting against.
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