Powers of council chief to be reviewed

The powers of Central Coast Council chief executive Mr Gary Murphy will be reviewed after councillors called a meeting to discuss his ability to decide on tenders with no upper limit.

Councillors seemed surprised, when questioning from Cr Greg Best about why tenders were not coming to Council for approval, revealed they were decided by Mr Murphy under delegated powers.

Cr Best said "Oh, my God" at the May 11 meeting when Mr Murphy explained he had unlimited delegated power to deal with tenders.

Cr Louise Greenaway asked if these powers of delegation were unusual.

Deputy mayor Cr Jane Smith asked that a report from June 25, 2018, be re-distributed to councillors.

At the 2018 meeting, Mr Murphy, who was to start a few days later on July 2, was granted the same delegated powers as previous chief executives, including the acting chief executive at the time, Mr Brian Glendenning.

SOURCE:

Central Coast Council agenda 4.14, 11 May 2020