Who holds the power? Elected reps or civil servants?

All eyes seem to be on council CEOs lately, after Hobsons Bay suspended theirs last month.

For readers of a certain vintage, council Chief Executive Officers conjure images of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the BBC’s archetypal senior civil servant; intelligent, manipulative, and skilled in bureaucratic manoeuvring. His fictional exploitation of the democratic process in Yes Minister and, later, Yes Prime Minister made us laugh because maybe it was just a bit too close to the truth. Readers of different certain vintage may remember the BBC’s Malcolm Tucker, a ruthless, foul-mouthed Director of Communications for a fictional government in The Thick of It.

These characters are nothing but fictional satire. But it got your correspondent thinking about just how well we know our local civil servants.

So your correspondent embarked on a mission. She emailed an invitation to the CEOs of Hobsons Bay and Brimbank for an interview in December last year, but was – very politely – declined. 

Not to be deterred, she approached both CEOs post-meetings, to extend the invitation in-person. Again, very politely, the invitations were declined, with the Brimbank CEO, Fiona Blair, saying she would rather the limelight fall on the elected representatives (ie Mayor and councillors). 

Fair enough.

But not everyone understands the difference between elected representatives and civil servants, which was why your correspondent was interested in writing a piece on CEOs in the first place.  

Then, in January this year, Hobsons Bay Council suspended its CEO because of “concerns” over “safety in the workplace”. Since then, we have heard another Hobsons Bay senior executive was suspended on the same day, although no reason has been forthcoming.

All this re-sparked your correspondent’s hankering to interview a council CEO – any CEO would do!

So your correspondent contacted the Communication departments of Maribyrnong and Wyndham City Councils, and sent very polite email requests to interview Celia Haddock (Maribyrnong CEO) and Stephen Wall (Wyndham CEO).

Ms Haddock’s Communications department replied within an hour and a half, saying Ms Haddock was “unable to participate at this time”.

At this time? Well at least that wasn’t a flat ‘no, not ever’.

Mr Wall’s communications department was more hopeful. Although Mr Wall didn’t have availability for an interview, he would answer emailed questions. Now, although it is not generally Rates, Roads and Rubbish’s policy to email questions, by this time your correspondent was getting pretty desperate. So she sent a list of questions, asking about the challenges of a CEO, and how decision-making at a local government level all worked.

At the time of writing (admittedly only five days after sending the questions) no answer has arrived in your correspondent’s inbox.

OK, so. What do we know?

We know that councillors are elected by the people (ie you and me). Councillors then vote in a Mayor from the assembled council. And we know that senior executives are employed to run the council, led by a CEO. 

We also know the Local Government Act (2020) defines the CEO’s role and responsibilities.

Part three, Division seven, section 46 tells us CEOs are employed to ensure decisions made by elected representatives (that’s councillors) are implemented effectively, and to manage interactions between council staff (employees) and elected representatives.  

The Local Government Act tells us the CEO oversees council’s day-to-day operations and implements budget strategies to stop it going broke.

CEOs are the “principal advisors” to the councillors and make recommendations to inform decision-making. They ensure our elected representatives comply with the provisions of the Local Government Act and other relevant laws, regulations, and policies. 

In other words, these council employees hold a lot of power over our elected representatives.  

But there is no specific provision under the Act that allows elected representatives to sack their CEO. However, under Section 45, the Act requires the CEO’s employment contract to include provisions for performance monitoring. In effect, this allows councillors the authority to manage the CEO’s employment conditions – including suspension or termination procedures.

Our CEOs play a key role in the democratic decision-making process, but they are private citizens and not accountable to the voting public in the same way that our councillors are.

So why should Rates, Roads and Rubbish go snooping into the lives of our CEOs? Maybe a journalist doesn’t even have the right?

Except … when we pay our rates, some of that money goes towards the wages of council’s senior executives. 

And according to the Victorian Remuneration Tribunal, public service senior executives can earn anything between $225,000 and $557,443 per annum.

A fair reason to scrutinise?