Since arriving at the shire in October last year, Ms Gordon’s focus has been on finding the “right people’’ to complete her executive and filling the vacancies that had existed at the shire for a lengthy period.
Interim appointments had been in place at the shire for some time, while the local government authority dealt with the impacts of COVID-19, floods and staff attrition.
In some cases those interim directors have, as expected, been appointed to the full-time role.
“I am delighted to welcome these highly regarded people into these roles and very much look forward to having them on board to help us move on from what has been an extremely challenging time,” Ms Gordon said.
“We have been so fortunate to have had staff across the organisation who stepped up to temporarily fill a range of vacancies, often juggling two roles, and their own personal circumstances as a result of the floods, but we know that is not sustainable long term.
“I want to sincerely thank and acknowledge those staff for ensuring the organisation had the support and leadership during one of the most difficult times in our community.
“We have a lot of work to do in the flood-recovery space, and we also have some big commitments to deliver improvement to services, infrastructure and efficiency of services and we must have the resources to be able to do that.”
Campaspe Shire Council was in the unique position of welcoming a new CEO when Ms Gordon joined during the October 2022 floods, with four acting directors in key senior roles.
“I feel privileged to be able to go through this process of shaping our future by recruiting to the director roles and am excited to have these directors on board to work with our wider council team,” Ms Gordon said.
The appointees will join Ms Gordon and recently appointed director emergency management Shannon Maynard on the executive leadership team.
Among the executive director appointments are new director of sustainability Michael Sharp.
He joins Kate Lemon (director infrastructure), Matt McPherson (director corporate), Shannon Maynard (director emergency management) and Jo Bradshaw (director communities) at the shire.
Mr Sharp has more than 23 years’ experience in local government leadership and management, across a range of areas including statutory and strategic planning, subdivision engineering, economic development and building control along with the planning of open space and community facilities.
He was previously director planning and Ddevelopment at Hume City Council and holds an honours Degree in Urban and Regional Planning and a Master of Business Administration.
He is passionate about developing staff and creating high-performing teams and the potential of place-based planning in building community wellbeing and the alignment of the people, processes, and systems of council to support the delivery of these plans.
