Shire of York

Joaquina St
York WA 6302
Dear CEO Mr Michael Keeble,
In our initial discussions re the EDO position offered to me you indicated the position was
approved and budgeted for by Council three years ago and included an office, motor vehicle
and adequate budget. That is not the case however, so for this reason and the reasons listed
below I am writing to thank you for the opportunity, but after careful consideration have
decided not to accept the position offered to me.

I do not believe the position offered is ready to be offered. A contract has taken three
weeks to prepare, was not ready prior to the two proposed commencement dates, and
as offered to me Tuesday 21 st October does not accurately reflect the position or the
terms that were offered by you at our initial meeting. This is extremely disappointing in
that I have deferred two festivals and a large number of contractual projects to order to
take the EDO position.
At our initial meeting, you indicated key duties would include overseeing the York
Information Service and York Residency Museum. The contract I viewed 21 st October
however suggests this will not be permitted until at least 3 months after
commencement and even then is still subject to council/business plan review. It will not
be possible to achieve the required outcomes for this position without oversight of
these functions.
You indicated a motor vehicle would be made available with this position, but now say
that there is no budget for a vehicle. Again, it is essential for the role.
You have mandated that the first task is write a Business Plan for the role, To write a
business plan for Economic Development & Growth requires thorough investigation
and stakeholder consultation. Tourism is a key economic driver in York and it is not
possible to write a comprehensive business plan when Tourism is excluded from the
scope. As well, Tourism currently falls to the DCEO who is away from the office (with no
indication of an imminent return) and your resignation is pending.
The full position description was only given to me after the interview and the position
being offered to me not beforehand.
If I was to commence work 21st October as planned I would have to use my own
resources i.e. computer, software, phone etc as none have yet been made available.
This is in my opinion inappropriate. These items written into the contract but are not
actually available. In view of the above, I do not think that the position has been
thought through or resourced adequately, and should not be offered until such time as
the issues above have been resolved.
Lastly I am disappointed that you explained you believe this community is vicious,
that certain ratepayers attack staff for sport, that various people will be watching and
waiting for me to make mistakes, that people will say nasty things about me, and that
several staff and councillors opposed my appointment. At no time though did you
suggest that you, as CEO, would take any action to mitigate this situation or
appropriately support my appointment. It is in your remit to work to change the culture
both internally and at the community interface, however your language and approach
suggests to me that this change will not be forthcoming and I or anyone else in this
position will not have the organisation support required from you to deflect any
inappropriate internal or community behaviour.