NUATALI Nelmes says the council executive was "at best dysfunctional" when she replaced Jeff McCloy as Newcastle lord mayor in 2014, and that Jeremy Bath was now the second-longest serving council head in the region, in contrast to "a revolving door of general managers" before that.
As reported yesterday, the council reappointed Mr Bath last year until December 2027, on terms set by a council committee with no Liberal or Independent representation.
Cr Nelmes this week described Newcastle council as "the envy of many other councils in NSW", and while Labor has a strong majority on the elected council, sources have told the Herald that the suspension of former Independent Kath Elliott - for leaking confidential material - had served as a warning to anyone who went against the grain.
The memo confirming Mr Bath's reappointment in December was marked "confidential", and councillors the Herald spoke with yesterday did not want to get involved, saying a "fishing expedition" was under way to find the source of the Herald's information.
The only one who would speak on the record was Liberal Katrina Wark, who praised Mr Bath as a hardworking CEO.
"I'm very happy with Jeremy's performance," Cr Wark said yesterday.
Other council sources, however, have questioned an apparently high turnover of staff in the council executive after two restructures carried out during Mr Bath's time at the council, which began as an interim appointment in May 2017, before his formal appointment in December 2017.
The most recent organisational chart, from December, shows 10 of 20 positions reporting to Mr Bath either "acting" or "interim" appointments.
This structure replaces a previous one, dated June last year, when 12 of 26 positions were acting or interim.
Asked about this, the council said the Local Government Act requires a structure review every four years at least, and that the changes were "relatively minor".
"For several vacant roles, a decision was made to temporarily move existing members of the leadership team into other roles in order to support their career development, which has the effect of creating a number of acting roles," a spokesperson said.
"Out of that leadership team of 26 there were six resignations since the last restructure in 2018, including two for health-related reasons and four to move on to other roles, which included an appointment to the role of general manager at another council.
"This is a low level of turnover over a five-year period given how in-demand our staff are from other councils and businesses."
To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.
