It was February 9 when John Walker was announced as interim General Manager of the Lismore City Council following the sacking of Michael Donnelly who was himself hired for a temporary period following the sacking of Shelley Oldham.

Lismore City Council (LCC) has the unenviable distinction of having five General Managers (GM) in five years.

It would appear that the publicly elected councillors, who sign off on the GM's appointment, either change their view through personality clashes, poor execution or, like in December 2021, through new elections so a different council makeup.

John Walkers interim contract finishes on February 8, 2023 and the recruitment process has begun to find LCC's next general manager. Will it be six in six years?

(Current interim General Manager John Walker on February 9 being introduced to the media)

Mayor Steve Krieg caught up with the Lismore App to tell us about the process.

"We've appointed a recruitment company that we met with two weeks ago. It's Capstone Recruitment, they are specialists in local government recruitment, which is really good. We have used them before."

The LCC GM job is currently being advertised through Seek. If you wish to read what is required to apply for the GM role, click here.

"We are advertising nationally for the general manager's role and a little bit international as well, looking into New Zealand," Mayro Krieg said.

"It's about a three week process then around the first of December we (councillors) will get a shortlist of candidates."

Applications close on 22 November, 2022.

"We're hoping to appoint someone before Christmas, early January at the latest because our current general manager is on a 12 month contract which expires around the eighth of February. So we want to have someone in place by then. It is law that you have to have a general manager and ideally, we'll have someone appointed and in the chair by the eighth of February."

When asked if current GM John Walker will put his hand up, Mayor Krieg replied, "You'll have to ask him."

"I'm certainly hoping so. He's done an outstanding job so far, in my opinion, so I'm certainly hoping that he will but that's entirely up to him."

"John has been getting all of our documentation up to date. Part of our $20 million capacity and capability funding from the Office of Local Government over three years is to get a lot of the backlog of work done that, for one reason or another, hasn't been done over the last 10 years."

"Things like our asset management plans and our IP&R framework are really important legal documents, some of which haven't been looked at or updated since 2012. John's done an outstanding job on on progressing those and trying to get those up to speed on where they need to be and you know for me, he's got the staff around him now that can achieve those really important goals."

LCC has gone through a major restructure since late June. Mayor Krieg told the Lismore App this is now complete.

"He's got really good people around him now and I would like to him to be able to see the project through. Dealing with the flood recovery and the rebuild, he's embedded in the system. He's involved with the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation through his role as Lismore GM."

"I'd really like to see him have the opportunity to see the process through."

It is easy for people to forget that John Walker began his twelve month contract on February 8, only twenty (20) days before the catastrophic flood of February 28 tore our community apart. A real baptism of fire, forget the honeymoon period.

If John Walker decides to not apply for the position or isn't appointed by councillors what attributes is LCC looking for?

"We need we need a leader. No question about that. We need someone embedded in local government. It's a unique beast, local government, with so many individual laws and governance issues that we need someone with a strong local government background."

The GM's position is usually set between three and five years because applicants won't relocate for a short term contract. Mayor Krieg said ideally you're looking for four to five year period to attract the best people.

For now, we wait and see who the best people are and who gets the nod before the end of Lismore's toughest year on record.