“Interview CEO South Gippsland April 28th 2020-Part 1

On April 28th I had the pleasure of chatting with the new CEO of South Gippsland Shire Council. It took us both a couple of minutes to grapple with the new zoom technologies but finally we managed to get connected. The interview was quite long so it will be broken up into around 20 parts put up over the next couple of weeks.

“Good morning Kerryn, and congratulations on gaining the role-you started work on was it the 19th of March?”

“It was the 10th of March, the day after the long weekend, we had one week before Corona started. It’s just incredible timing and it’s been a real challenge actually. Obviously starting a new job under these circumstances however will all do the best we can don’t we.”

In some ways you really have not really arrived, and you probably had two weeks meeting people and then everyone got sent home so I feel for you in this position”

“I had, thank you, I had about 2 1/2 weeks in the office under normal circumstances and then we obviously had state government directives about how we work so since then we have been working in a mixture of remote and present so I’m still coming into the office some days and other days working from home”

“Now I appreciate you have not being there very long but also appreciate you may not be on top of everything, that’s not a criticism, so if there’s a question you don’t know the answer to, happy for you to get back to me later”.

“No problem, happy if there’s something that I can’t answer to get detail for you later”.

“Have any staff hours been reduced or staff laid off from the coronavirus, or have the staff been given other areas to work in?”. 

“A little bit of both we’ve certainly got some casual or contract staff who generally work when there’s work to be done and some of those have not had shifts allocated so some of those staff there had been stood down as such there just not getting shifts For other staff who are permanent they are all still working some of them are working in different roles for example supporting the continuity arrangements but the vast majority of staff are doing their usual roles”.

“And which of the higher-level roles like directors etcetera are still unfulfilled at the moment 

“Well faith page left the director of corporate and community role about the 18th of March so it’s about a week after I started when she finished. That role is vacant in terms of a substantive occupant but we do have somebody acting in the role at the moment”.

“Have you spoken to any stakeholders and who have you met me to date?”

“When you say stakeholders do you mean external people outside the organization?”

“Yes that’s what I mean”.

“I have and sadly not as many as I would have liked given the covid circumstances and a lot of them have been people that have had to meet with online like I am with you right now but yes I have so for example I’ve met with CEOs from our surrounding regional councils. I’ve met with most of the media outlets, I’ve met with most of our politicians as in state and federal and I’m working through that program meeting with business owners and community groups. I’ve met with a number for example where we doing major projects have been out on site and met with stakeholders there so it’s been a real range of stakeholders but not definitely, not at the pace that I would have preferred were I able to meet with people face to face”.

 “Only a few weeks, you done wonderful so far! Do you plan to live in the Shire?”

“Well, as you can probably imagine my plans around my living arrangements being put on hold because of the current circumstances but I only live an hour away so at this stage I’m comfortable commuting. I also have family in the Shire that I can and have been staying with so at this stage I don’t have any plans but once this, probably within the next 6 to 12 months, this whole covid thing is finished or reconsider at that stage”.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Interview