Nelson City CEO announces resignation

January 18th, 2012

Nelson City Council Chief Executive Keith Marshall yesterday announced his resignation from his role, effective mid-April, saying it was "in order to make myself available for other opportunities" which he did not disclose.

Perhaps the prospect of amalgamation of Nelson and Tasman councils is unsettling the respective CEOs, as Tasman District Council's counterpart Paul Wylie resigned unexpectedly last August.

In a press release, Nelson Mayor Aldo Miccio said that while Keith's resignation came as a bit of a surprise, he understood the reasons behind Keith's decision. "I do admire Keith for making this decision at this time - after all, he could simply have hung around for the looming amalgamation and collected a healthy redundancy payment, but that really isn't his style or attitude."

Mayor Miccio, on behalf of Council, thanked Keith for his leadership of Council staff for over 3 years that has resulted in an increase in staff 'buy-in' to nearly double the national average for local government, and more than doubled the positive perceptions of customer service performance. "By anyone's standards these are amazing results."

Mayor Miccio also highlighted the financial performance of Council over the past few years. Those financial results had enabled Councillors to propose the lowest rate rise in 20 years in last year's draft annual plan. Nelson City Council had posted a surplus of around $42 million for the past year, well up from surpluses in previous years. "As a result, the city is in great financial shape."

The Mayor said Keith would be sorely missed, but he was happy he will be around to help the preparation of the upcoming draft Long Term Plan (LTP). Mayor Miccio says this is likely to be a very difficult LTP to produce given the impacts arising from the recent emergency and the potential magnitude of the recovery efforts and costs.

"I will sit down next week and work up a recommendation to Council as to how we move forward with recruiting a replacement CEO," the Mayor said. "It's unlikely we will move to recruit a replacement for Keith before knowing the Local Government Commission decision in respect to amalgamating the two Councils."

Mayor Miccio said he was also aware that final interviews for the Tasman District Council CEO role were due to happen later this week.

>> , to be added to the page. [If this link doesn't work, use this form instead]

[ Return ]
[ Other news articles ]

We wish to thank these local community-minded businesses who generously sponsor our site. They recognise the value of supporting this community asset, and in return Motueka Online is pleased to use and recommend their services whenever appropriate.

Ray White Motueka, Parkes Automotive, Motueka Floral Studio, Nelson Building Society, House of Travel