Key MV council planner resigns

Sharon Webb

MEANDER VALLEY Council’s senior planner has joined the growing list of staff resigning from the council – and may sell her services back to the council at a higher price.

Senior strategic planner Jo Oliver announced her resignation on 9 March.

In the meantime Neil Grose, appointed as the council’s COVID business and economic recovery manager in 2020, has been appointed to the Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone after his surprise resignation in February.

He joins Cllr Susie Bower who is CEO at BBAMZ, and his wife Nicole, a workforce development facilitator.

In addition, general manager John Jordan’s position is not entirely secure as his first annual performance review in the job is not yet finalised despite beginning in January.

Ms Oliver is among the most experienced planners in Tasmania and her resignation after 16 years planning in the Meander Valley could be a blow to the council.

Large housing subdivisions are in process in Blackstone Heights, Prospect, Prospect Vale and Hadspen, and the planning process for a new prison will be submitted to the council later this year.

But Ms Oliver’s services may not be entirely lost to the council as it’s believed she plans to establish a consultancy. The mayor, Wayne Johnston, told the Examiner, ‘We haven’t lost her, we know that she’s going to be out there. We’ll just have to pay for it . Probably more.’

In response to a question from Cllr Frank Nott at the March council meeting, Mr Jordan confirmed Ms Oliver’s resignation, effective 28 May. The council has advertised 13 positions so far this year as it deals with a spate of resignations. But the resignations started in 2020 after many years of stability.

While rumours of the council being an unhappy workplace are spreading in the community, Cllr Rodney Synfield said people reaching retiring age in a cluster, other career opportunities presenting and current workplace restructuring could be reasons for staff resigning.

‘Speaking as an individual councillor, of course I have concerns over the number of staff who have left in recent times’, he said.

‘Whilst council has had a relatively stable workforce for a long time, a range of factors have come together such that this is no longer the case.’