Sharon Webb

THE MEANDER Valley mayor’s personal pick for the position of business and economic recovery manager has resigned just nine months into a two year appointment.

Neil Grose’s resignation was a bombshell the mayor admitted he didn’t know was coming. He said he was ‘disappointed’.

In May 2020, Cllr Wayne Johnston boasted on ABC Radio that he personally headhunted Mr Grose for the position, specially created to bring new jobs, people and prosperity to Meander Valley after Covid-19.

Mr Grose’s resignation came only weeks after the resignation of business development officer Victoria Purtell, who left the council for another government job.

According to one of the employees who resigned from Meander Valley Council in the past year, Mr Grose left because he was demoralised and dissatisfied with how the position had worked out.

Last month, the council tried to put a positive spin on Mr Grose‘s resignation as it advertised three more positions on top of the eight advertised in January.

[Note: a typographic error in the Gazette’s print version refers to ‘Ms Purtell’s resignation’ in the above paragraph. This has now been corrected here.]

Cllr Johnston said the council had ‘seen a number of staff changes as the organisation focuses on a new service delivery model to better meet the needs of our growing community.

‘We need to be in a position to effectively respond to the changing expectations of our residents. We have a responsibility to deliver the right services in an efficient and contemporary way.’

Cllr Johnston described Mr Grose’s resignation as ‘a temporary appointment’, saying, ‘We respect Neil’s decision to pursue other opportunities and wish him well’.

But a colleague of Mr Grose understands that he was not resigning to go directly into another position.

Cllr Johnston said staff changes were initiated by ‘recent restructure’, where ‘a small number of employees elected to take voluntary redundancies over redeployment or other options available under the council’s enterprise agreement’.

That restructure was conducted by general manager, John Jordan, who was appointed to his position in early 2020.

But on top of the redundancies from the late 2020 restructure, it appears that at least twelve people have resigned from the council in the past year, including one of the council’s four directors, Lynette While.

Ms While was replaced by Krista Palfeyman, who was appointed to the newly named position of director of development and regulatory services.

In May 2020, Cllr Johnston commented on Mr Grose’s appointment on ABC Radio.

‘We’re pretty stoked to secure Neil from the Launceston Chamber of Commerce.

‘Considering there’s not many good news stories about, this will be a good one for Meander Valley.

‘We aim to look at what our strengths are – tourism, agriculture, getting some manufacturing back into Westbury industrial site.

‘I guess it’s pretty open slather for the new role. We’re hoping to come out of this really well.

‘We’re pretty much a glass half-full kind of council, not half empty, and we thought we needed someone with the nous and ability to talk to all walks of life.’

Eleven positions were advertised by Meander Valley Council in January and February 2021, including: manager community programs; team leader, project management and waste strategy; health, safety and emergency management co-ordinator; graduate environmental health officer; graduate engineer; administration officer; technical officer GIS; project manager waste services; PT town planner; community facility officer; general inspector compliance.