Rodney Stevens
Before the decision to award Clarence Valley Council General Manager Laura Black resulting in a split vote 5 to 4, this was the background information provided to councillors about the process of the GM’s Performance Management Review.
The Performance Management Review Panel conducted the Annual Performance Review of the General Manager GM according to the Office of Local Government’s “Guidelines for the appointment and oversight of general managers”, with a facilitator from Local Government NSW present to assist.
The GM was assessed against Performance Management Targets set by the former Mayor, Ian Tiley, in conjunction with the GM.
A panel of Cr Tiley, Cr Novak, and Cr Toms considered the 6-month progress of the GM towards these targets, which was reported in a Mayoral Minute at the May 2023 council meeting, and concluded the GM had met all targets, and in some cases exceeded expectations.
The panel for the GM’s annual PMR of Mayor Peter Johnstone, Deputy Mayor Jeff Smith, councillors’ representative, Cr Karen Toms, and the GM’s representative, Cr Debrah Novak, met in December 2023 and agreed the performance of the GM against the targets continued to meet, and in many instances to exceed expectations.
Circulars from the Office of Local Government stated annual increments in salary normally awarded to GM’s did not happen this year, but they also explained the pay freeze could be mitigated by using the performance pay rise provisions in GM’s contracts.
Thus, the panel recommended these provisions be used to increase the salary of GM Laura Black.
Given the Wage Price Index was 4 per-cent in September 2023 and the inflation rate was 5.6 per-cent, the background information states a 2 per-cent pay rise suggests “a drop in real terms when compared to inflation.”
The 2 per-cent pay rise of Clarence Valley Council GM, Laura Black applies to her current salary of $342,696.93, and will amount to approximately $7,200 per year.
In an interview with Damien Fisher on Loving Life FM 103.1 last Friday, Cr Greg Clancy explained the rescission motion, signed by himself, Cr Tiley, Cr Bill Day, and Cr Smith.
“I don’t think the process (of the GM’s Performance Review) is rigorous enough to investigate certain issues, certain aspects in a thorough enough way, and there is very little opportunity to review certain aspects,” he said.
“The purpose of the rescission motion is to revisit the motion that was carried yesterday, because we believe that the opportunity needs to be given to councillors who voted on that to reconsider their position, and to listen to further debate.
“It’s a serious issue and it is one that the four of us who signed the rescission motion believe we need to have another look at.”
Cr Clancy indicated the debate on the rescission motion will probably again go into a confidential session because it will be discussing senior staff positions, therefore it needs to remain confidential.