The delegation powers of Central Coast Council CEO Gary Murphy will be under scrutiny after councillors called a meeting to discuss his ability to decide on tenders with no upper money limit.
Some Councillors seemed surprised when questioning from Cr Greg Best about why tenders were not coming to council for approval revealed they were decided by delegation.
Cr Best said “Oh my God” at the May 11 meeting when Murphy explained he had unlimited delegated power to deal with tenders.
Cr Louise Greenaway asked if these powers of delegation were unusual.
Cr Rebecca Gale asked for the meeting to be added to the motion the councillors were dealing with at the time.
Deputy Mayor Jane Smith said perhaps the report from June 25, 2018, should be re-distributed to councillors.
This too was added to the motion.
At the 2018 meeting, the new CEO, who was to start a few days later on July 2, was granted the same delegated powers as previous CEO’s and the acting CEO at the time, Brian Glendenning.
The 2018 decision also asked for further reports on delegations regarding planning matters and details of historic delegations of the general managers of the former councils over the last ten years including a comparison of other neighbouring councils.
The matter went through undebated en masse with other items.
Cr Jilly Pilon and Cr Lisa Matthews were not at that 2018 meeting.
Mayor Matthews said after the latest meeting that all councillors get the same reports.
Source:
Central Coast Council meeting May 11
Item 4.14
Press Statement
Mayor Matthews, May 12