Central Coast Mayor Lisa Matthews has today taken the extraordinary step of publicly announcing her loss of confidence in Central Coast Council’s CEO Mr Gary Murphy in the wake of revelations about long term, structural problems with the Council’s finances.

Councillors and the Mayor have been provided with inadequate information about the financial position of Council and discovered the full extent of the problem only last night when it was revealed that Council would struggle to pay its own staff.

“In light of the long-term problems that have been allowed to grow unchecked within the operational division of Council, the only course of action now available is to insist on a new CEO to manage the day to day operations,” Mayor Lisa Matthews said.

“It is unforgivable for council staff to be left in a position where they might not be paid and it is unacceptable that the elected Councillors and I were not given information about the precariousness of Council’s finances until yesterday.”