WEST WIMMERA councillors have voted to block employing a council human resources manager, despite chief executive Mark Crouch stressing an urgent need to repair poor culture within the organisation.
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Advertisements for a human resources co-ordinator and occupational health and safety officer have appeared in the Mail-Times and other media.
Cr Annette Jones moved a motion at Thursday night’s council meeting to withdraw the advertisements and defer the creation of the role until the next budget review early next year.
“I think, given there’s a tight budget, I’d like to have a look at the budget and make sure we’ve recovered enough to make a new position,” she said.
Mr Crouch said council could not afford to muck around and needed to move rapidly to employ someone in human resources.
“We have had some poor cultural issues in our organisation that have caused us issues at various times,” he said.
He flagged cuts could be made in other areas at the next budget review to create the position.
“I’m very uncomfortable to be in the position where I’m not being given the resources I need to run this organisation and if it means making some hard decisions, I’ll make some hard decisions,” he said.
Mr Crouch said he was disappointed to not have support from council and believed West Wimmera was the only municipality in Victoria without someone working in a dedicated human resources position.
“As an organisation we are under a level of stress and we’ve got some priorities we do need to meet,” he said.
“I need the firepower and capacity to deal with them.”
"If it means making some hard decisions, I’ll make some hard decisions.''
- West Wimmera chief executive Mark Crouch
The vote to withdraw the new job was split before Mayor Ron Hawkins voted for the motion.
Cr Warren Wait voted to block the position.
“We’ve managed 19 years without a HR person,” he said.
Mr Crouch said he and council managers were spending time dealing with human resources.
“We’ve got a range of issues we’re grappling with at the moment. With no HR capacity, it’s basically compromising the role of my two general managers,” he said.
He said he had previously tried to get human resources to be shared with the West Wimmera Health Service – a move council blocked last year.
Mr Crouch also tried unsuccessfully to see if neighbouring councils had the capacity to share resources with West Wimmera.
At the meeting, council resolved to buy three sets of public bins for $10,530, further frustrating Mr Crouch.
“We’re putting bins ahead of HR capacity at the moment,” he said.
The bins for recycling and general waste will be at Harrow and Goroke and at Kaniva’s Windmill Cafe.
