It is understandable that the community is angry about the ‘full payout’ given to the former Central Coast Council CEO following his termination. 

I was too because as I said in my 30-Day Report, the former CEO did not adequately perform key parts of the role and therefore was a major contributor to the financial decline confronting the Council.

However, given the provisions of the contract and the laws governing employee legal rights, a full payout of 38 weeks was necessary. This was the quickest way to allow the recruitment of a new CEO (usually 3-4 months) and expediate Council’s move toward financial recovery.

The path to remove a CEO for unsatisfactory performance, which would still have seen 13 weeks’ paid out, would have required a performance review to be conducted and the CEO an opportunity to respond. This would have taken at least eight weeks and would have been difficult given the previous Council determined his performance as “meets expectations” in the two previous CEO performance reviews.

This timetable also assumes Mr Murphy was available to be interviewed. On the two occasions I requested a meeting he declined to meet.

Given all this, I stand by my decision as the best for the long-term future of the Council, its ratepayers and staff. I regret I could not find a better way forward.