SCENIC Rim Regional Council has begun a restructure, but the process has begun behind closed doors.
The restructure was a late agenda item for the January 29 meeting and Councillors went into a closed confidential session to discuss the matter.
Following the closed session, Councillors voted to endorse the proposed draft organisational structure for consultation; and to authorise the Chief Executive Officer to implement the processes necessary to transition to the new organisational structure.
The structure has not been released publicly.
Management Disappear
Over the past year and a half three of the four General Managers have left the organisation.
The only staff member in a managerial role who is mentioned by name on the Council website is CEO David Keenan.
Tamborine Mountain News was unable to verify whether the position of General Manager People and Strategy, is vacant.
There has also been significant turnover of staff at middle management level, with many staff in acting positions while Council appears to be unable to attract talent to fill positions.
Redundancies
Initially a Council spokesperson advised they were unable to provide the figures paid to staff leaving over the last 12 months in redundancy packages or payouts due to privacy considerations.
They later stated that the staff turnover has not resulted in redundancies.
“There have been no redundancies and therefore no monies paid out for redundancies,” the spokesperson said.
“Council has accepted the resignations of some members of the Management team in the past 12 months.”
Positions Advertised
On April 10, three positions were advertised via Capstone Recruitment: Director Corporate & Community Services, Director Infrastructure Services, and Director Planning & Development.
Council also produced a recruitment video featuring David Keenan.
When Tamborine Mountain News requested a copy of the proposed organisation structure, we were advised it is in the advertisements for the Directors’ roles, available on Council’s websites.
Despite checking the advertisements we were unable to local this information in the public domain.
It appears the restructure is still in progress.
The Council spokesperson said the next stage of the restructure will be undertaken following the employment of the Directors.
“Council is committed to a recruitment process for its new Executive Leadership Team to help transform the organisation,” the spokesperson stated.
Silent on costings
Council has refused to release any information about the financial implications of the restructure, with the spokesperson stating that figures were provided to Council through a confidential report in January 2025.
However, the Draft Budget 2025-26, released on April 16, shows an in increase of $2,482,000 for net operating employee expenses when compared to the Revised Budget 2024-2025.
Applications for the three Director positions close at midnight on May 2, 2025.
Council last adopted an organisational structure in August 2018.
