by Sahar Foladi
The first from the executive team is “finishing up” with the council way ahead of his five-year contract.
Council’s chief executive officer Jacqui Weatherill has confirmed corporate development executive director Andrew Foley’s departure with no clear indication of a reason.
“I can confirm there is a planned restructure of our executive leadership, to support a re-focus on the priorities of Council.
“As part of that, Andrew Foley is finishing up with Council. I express my sincere thanks for his excellent service to our organisation, including his focus on financial sustainability.
“I will be engaging with our staff soon on a new structure.”
It is also unclear whether he will be paid out for the five-years contract or just for the year.
Mayor Jim Memeti says Ms Weatherill and Mr Foley both came to a mutual agreement to terminate his contract.
“He came in, did what he had to do, he made a lot of savings and restructure and now there’s no need to have a director in that position.
“Council would not be advertising that job again so we’ve saved a directors wage I guess.
“We don’t get involved with staff or operational so the ceo advised us there’s no requirement and they both agreed there’s no job available anymore.
“We’re not privy to that (contract terms) because that’s an operation matter.
“I haven’t got a clue and I don’t think anyone would be paid a five year contract but if it was mutually agreed I’m sure they came to some sort of agreement.”
Mr Foley was one of the three new members announced as part of Ms Weatherill’s executive team which replaced long-serving directors and managers including Paul Kearsley, Kylie Sprague and Jody Bosman in June last year.
Councillor Rhonda Garad says she put the question on Mr Foley’s payout to Ms Weatherill over a week ago with no response as of yet.
“I could not understand why the full contract would be paid out and I do believe we should know what the terms of his departure were.
“It’s concerning to have a departure at this level in the organisation.”
She says the move is “highly disruptive” to the councils workflow but the executive team are “strong” and “stable leadership team.”
The current executive team consists of Peta Gillies (community strengthening), Sanjay Manivasagasivam (city futures) as well as executive manager Marjan Hajjari (strategic growth and advocacy) and Yuri Guzman (chief information officer) joined in July last year.
