Fresh face for CEO
Shaking hands: Mayor Jim Fawcett congratulates Tim Tamlin on his appointment as chief executive officer last Thursday.
By Bert van Bedaf
SOUTH Gippsland Shire Council has appointed an outsider as its new chief executive officer, but that might not be such a bad thing.
New ideas from a fresh source without internal baggage could be just the tonic council and the shire needs to achieve greater service levels and engage with the community in different ways.
Council’s recent community satisfaction survey identified improvements were needed in community engagement, roads and footpaths, town planning and economic development.
At 45, Tim Tamlin has proved to be of high calibre in his achievements. His latest appointment came on his birthday, last Wednesday, September 23, which might be an omen.
Born in South Australia, at 25 he became the youngest person to have been appointed senior technical officer at the State’s transport department (the equivalent of Victoria’s VicTrack).
Nine years later he moved into private enterprise, working for a road contractor, RPC Roads.
Because work took him away from his young family for long durations (covering two states), in 2001 he joined the City of Greater Dandenong.
Four years later, in 2005, he was appointed director engineering services.
He will leave this position and take up his appointment as council’s new chief officer on November 4, after the Melbourne Cup weekend. He has been given a five-year contract.
Mr Tamlin said he came to the job with a clean slate, “without pre-conceived ideas” and a fresh approach.
So fresh, in fact, that South Gippsland previously had not been on his radar. He has never been to Wilsons Promontory or Coal Creek.
The family lives in Pakenham and he will stay in Leongatha “in some capacity”. He and his wife have a 16-year-old son and two girls, 14 and 15, who are all school-going and in critical stages of development.
“We can’t pull the children out of school,” Mr Tamlin said. “But I realise it’s important to be here and I will be staying here on occasions.”
Although an Essendon supporter, Mr Tamlin is not really a football fan. As a youngster in Loxton, he did a lot of water skiing. Motocross, skate boarding and rollerblading were to his taste. But these days, he works out at the gym. He has an interest in the arts because one of his daughters likes acting and the theatre.
“The position offers a great opportunity for me to have a positive impact on people’s lives. I look forward to working in partnership with council and leading the organisation to take the shire from good to great in meeting the broader community’s aspirations and goals,” Mr Tamlin said.
Local government has given Mr Tamlin a passion for working with people, staff and the community.
Although staff responsibilities will double from about 200 in Dandenong to just under 400 in South Gippsland, his budget responsibilities will be less.
As director of engineering he managed a budget of about $44million, while this council’s budget is about $40 million.
Mayor Jim Fawcett said the selection process began about two months ago. More than 35 people applied. Four candidates were left standing.
Although councillors Kieran Kennedy and Jeanette Harding were not at the final selection meeting, Mr Tamlin was councillors’ “unanimous choice”.
“We picked who we believed was the best applicant, who has the right skills and the range of experience, both in private enterprise and local government,” Cr Fawcett said.
Expectations are high. Cr Fawcett outlined a long list of outstanding
issues.
“Tim will address and manage council’s operational capacity and key performance indicators,” Cr Fawcett said.
This will include improving council’s community engagement and building on the relationship between councillors and staff.
Then there’s a raft of issues that will need to be resolved, including the farming zones, the C48 amendment and draft rural strategy; the bypasses in Leongatha and Korumburra, towns which have other problems as well.
The stalemate over the former saleyards and commercial centre in Korumburra will need fixing and in Leongatha, council will need to resolve the issue over the VicTrack railway land. Infrastructure, roads and capital works are also on the agenda.
“Council is facing major capital expenditure in the next eight years in office accommodation and pool replacement,” Cr Fawcett said. “No doubt, having fresh ideas, Tim will identify a few others. He is a can-do person. Let’s get our priorities right. Let’s run with it and let’s finish it.”
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Posted by Chris Brown on Sep 29 2009. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
