One word did the rounds of staff offices at Noosa Council’s Pelican Street chambers last week as the news of chief executive officer Scott Waters’ shock resignation leaked out – gobsmacked.
The gobsmacks were occasioned not just by the loss of a CEO only 14 months into his tenure, but by the fact that Mr Waters, alongside Mayor Clare Stewart, had only recently completed a major organisational restructure, which the CEO described as “a leadership program based on renewed organisational values”.
According to one insider: “In restructures like this there are always winners and losers, and that’s when the mayor and the CEO have to placate the losers. In those situations there is usually a lot of talk about loyalty and taking one for the team, but in this case it seems highly likely that the CEO was already being interviewed for a new job while this was happening. That’s why sections of staff were gobsmacked.”
According to website Noosa Matters, even the Mayor herself had “admitted to being teary about it” since receiving Mr Waters’ resignation .
Mr Waters, who was recruited by a team led by Mayor Stewart in December 2021, left a plum job as CEO of Darwin Council to accept the Noosa role, and will now leave Noosa in May to become the CEO at Moreton Bay Regional Council, Australia’s third largest council.
While it is certainly a feather in his career cap to have been appointed after an extensive Australia-wide search, Waters’ resignation after such a brief stopover in Noosa is considered unusual to say the least.
Over the past 30 years, with the exception of the six-year amalgamation hiatus, Noosa Shire has had only two CEOs – Bruce Davidson and Brett de Chastel, whom Scott Waters replaced on retirement.
Both were considered to have been exemplary servants of their community and great leaders. Both still live in the shire.
Noosa’s last three mayors, Bob Abbot, Noel Playford and Tony Wellington, each had but one CEO.
Mayor Stewart is looking for her third.
According to one insider, a normal senior staff contract at Noosa Council, at least since the council reformed after de-amalgamation, runs for three or four years, occasionally fixed term with no renewal but more often with an option to renew. There is a probation period of three or six months at the start and the opportunity to notify intention not to renew six months before the completion of the term.
But, according to two other sources, underlying this is the fundamental idea that if someone gets a better offer and wants to leave, they can.
So while it is unfair to tarnish Mr Waters’ as yet unknown Noosa legacy because of a smart career move that he was quite entitled to make, the job he was hired to do is far from over, and the cost to the community of replacing him will be significant.
Putting a brave face on the resignation in an official statement, Mayor Stewart said: “Scott has been an agent of change for our organisation and I truly appreciate what he’s been able to implement during his 14-month tenure. It’s certainly a huge loss for our council but I understand that Scott has to make the right decisions for his family and career and this is a natural progression for a CEO of his calibre. The fact Scott was successful in a nationwide recruitment campaign for such a large council is testament to our recruitment process and clearly shows we had the right person in place.”
In a later mayoral minute at last week’s council meeting, Mayor Stewart emphasised “unity and solidarity” as the key to the pathway forward. She said: “It is important to move swiftly to ensure that our talented executive team can deliver our transformational program in liaison with councillors, the destination management plan, the 2023-24 budget, corporate plan, initiatives of the housing strategy, plus more. In a show of unity and solidarity this afternoon, I along with our CEO Scott Waters , our soon to be Acting CEO Larry Sengstock with all the executive team addressed managers and senior staff. The message is and was clear – it is firmly business as usual.”
For his part, Mr Waters heaped praise on the mayor in a statement as he placed one foot outside the door: “The opportunity to work with Mayor Clare Stewart was largely the reason for moving to Noosa… Her progressive view for the shire and her strong focus on social justice and fairness has made the role incredibly rewarding.”
Of his own legacy he said: “I am proud of what we’ve achieved, the first phase of Noosa 2.0 is in place, we have a new corporate plan, our structure realignment is being finalised, a refreshed council brand about to roll out and a leadership program based on renewed organisational values is underway.
“I am genuinely excited at what we are building here in Noosa, but the opportunity to take on such a challenging and significant role for me personally and professionally is the next step in my career and I’m looking forward to commencing with the team at Moreton Bay Regional Council.”
Fair enough, and no doubt Infrastructure Services Director Larry Sengstock will pick up the pieces of the vision and move forward in his capacity as acting CEO.
But it’s interesting to reflect on Mr Waters’ words when he spoke to Noosa Today from Darwin just after his Noosa appointment had been announced in 2021: “For me the biggest difference [between Darwin and Noosa] will be in reclaiming a greater involvement in planning and development, which is something I really enjoy. There are critical parts of that equation that the team in Noosa is looking at right now, like housing affordability. I think it’s one of the most important parts of what a council in a place like Noosa will be doing next, planning a future that delivers for the broad community as well as the tourism operators, having the right product mix that will deliver at the highest level.”
So, plenty there for the next bloke (or woman) to be going on with.
