Douglas Shire Council announces new CEO
Wednesday February 19th 2014
Douglas Shire Council announces new CEO
The Douglas Shire Council today announced the appointment of local government executive and Daintree resident Linda Cardew as the organisation’s CEO.
Announcing the news, Mayor Julia Leu described Council’s “national search” to fill the position, with Ms Cardew eventually selected from 33 applicants.
“Linda has a vast array of experience across a number of local government areas and a number of levels of government,” Mayor Leu said.
She described Ms Cardew’s significant strategic management and financial skills, gained from over 15 years in local government, as “exactly what we need” during Council’s first term.
“She has an amazing background in terms of personal achievements and significant career achievements. Certainly, Linda…really stood out amongst the applicants, and I know the Council are very pleased to be able to appoint her.
“What I really like and I know the Council is very pleased about, is that Linda brings fresh energy into the CEO role, and that is exactly what we need for these first two years. It's a very significant job, being the CEO, and people who have not done that role probably won't understand how wide-ranging it is. You really need to have significant personal skills, communication skills - that ability to work very closely with the Mayor and councillors, and also the community.”
Ms Cardew said she felt “honoured and humbled by the opportunity to be appointed as the first CEO of the new Douglas Shire Council.”
“It’s a remarkable opportunity to lead an administration that fully supports the Mayor and the councillors in setting the way forward for Douglas," she said.
“The challenges that I know I’ll be facing in the next weeks, months and years, will really be enormous. But the expectation of the community, first of all, is that I will deliver an administration and manage an administration comprising a team which is capable and committed, and accessible. Where we spend these first months in particular, of really establishing a solid foundation for the way forward.
“It might sound exciting that there’s a new Douglas, and I know that the Mayor and councillors are very much wanting to take the Council forward in a very innovative and new way. But my role as the CEO is, initially, to establish the nuts and bolts of this Council.
"To look after the Council staff, to bring together a team which is really highly committed to its job - they’ve been through a difficult time with amalgamation, de-amalgamation, the expectations and the uncertainties that have been placed on them. So at every level across the organisation, I want the staff to feel that they are a valued part of a team, and that they are responsible and accountable for everything that they do.
“The nuts and bolts really relate to those statutory responsibilities that we have as an organisation, and again it sounds incredibly boring, but it is essential to plan for the budget for the 2014/15 year, it’s essential to prepare the corporate plan and the other statutory plans that the local government act requires. So, that doesn’t sound very exciting, but if it’s done well - and I hope to achieve a level of excellence in the administration - it will mean that Douglas is set up for the next years from an administrative perspective.
“The relationship between the team, between the Council team and councillors, is terribly important. The elected representatives are here to really understand the community needs and wants and to prioritise those issues. And I want our team to work as a unified whole, to be able to support the councillors and the policy direction, the thinking and ideas that the councillors have, moving forward. So it’s going to be a very exciting time.
“I hope that the community sees this new administration as creative, as competent, as accessible. We won’t be locked away in an ivory tower; we will be there to be able to not only respond, but to proactively take forward the direction of the Mayor and the councillors. So, while there might be opportunities in the future…to go forward, we have commitments that we must adhere to right now.
"In terms of the completion of the de-amalgamation process, I want to build on the exceptional work that Jeff Tate has done as Transfer Manager, the relationship which he has developed with the staff, and the relationship which he has with the newly elected council.”
Ms Cardew officially takes up the new position on March 10.
Check out The Newsport tomorrow, February 20, to read an exclusive interview with Linda Cardew.
