Hands off Geelong! - Shire’s top execs go west

FIRST it was the Bass Coast Shire Council’s rising star, CEO Ali Wastie.

Now it’s the shire’s most important General Manager, its key planning executive, James Stirton, who has been headhunted by the City of Greater Geelong.

It can’t be a coincidence that Mr Stirton would have followed Ms Wastie, three short months after her own appointment as Geelong CEO.

The news, first published on the Geelong City website, last Wednesday, December 6, has left local councillors shellshocked.

Phillip Island Councillor Ron Bauer termed it a “huge loss to the shire, especially Phillip Island”.

He has acknowledged that he would have liked to see Mr Stirton appointed to replace Ms Wastie at Bass Coast.

“To give him his due, though, he has been entirely honourable and didn’t apply for the position. Things were already clearly in motion.”

The Mayor Cr Clare Le Serve said the position of Bass Coast CEO wasn’t offered to Mr Stirton.

Should it have been? asked the Sentinel-Times at the weekend.

“We are involved in a very thorough process (for the appointment of the CEO),” Cr Le Serve said, “and we certainly wish James all the best, he’s been a credit to himself, and to Bass Coast and it certainly sets the bar high for his replacement.”

“It’s a great opportunity for him, he’s a great bloke and an excellent manager. Bass Coast’s loss is certainly Geelong’s gain.”

Was it a missed opportunity? Does the mayor blame former CEO Ali Wastie for headhunting Mr Stirton.

“No, there are a limited number of people at this level. It regularly happens in Local Government,” she said.

Cr Le Serve said she expected the council to be able to name a successor for Ms Wastie either before Christmas or very early in the New Year.

The appointment of a General Manager Place Making, especially with the significant challenges ahead for Bass Coast, including the major review of its Statement of Planning Policy (SPP) driven by the controversial Distinctive Area and Landscape process, looms as the new CEO’s first and most important task.

Mr Stirton starts his new job at Geelong as ‘Executive Director City Infrastructure’ on January 22, 2024.

Among his roles at Bass Coast are Strategic and Statutory Planning, Recreation and Transport, Major Projects and Infrastructure Delivery (Civil design, construction and asset management).

Attracting planning executives is believed to be the hardest recruitment call in Victorian Local Government at the moment, harder even than finding a new CEO.

Bass Coast will have to do both in the next few months.

Also joining the executive leadership team at Geelong is former East Gippsland Shire CEO, Anthony Basford, a colleague of Ms Wastie’s on the ‘One Gippsland’ board.

Ali Wastie’s rise up the government and local government ladder has been nothing short of meteoric:

* On August 10, 2022, the Minister for Environment and Climate Action Lily D’Ambrosio issued a media release to announce the appointment of Ali Wastie as the Chair of the Board for Alpine Resorts Victoria.

* On August 17, 2022, Bass Coast Council extended the contract of the CEO Ali Wastie for five years until February 17, 2028.

* In June 2023, Ali Wastie was appointed CEO of the City of Greater Geelong after the Victorian Minister for Local Government Melissa Horne had appointed two monitors to oversee the CEO selection process.

* In September 2023, Ali Wastie was appointed chair of the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds Joint Venture, to oversee the $108 million redevelopment of showgrounds in a joint venture between the show society the State Government and its private sector partners PPP Solutions, comprising International Public Partnerships Limited and Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions.

* Ms Wastie joined Bass Coast as CEO in February 2019 after stints at the City of Melbourne and Yarra Ranges Council between 2013 and 2019.