Published on Wednesday, 11 December 2019 at 8:36:59 AM
At the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley’s Ordinary Council Meeting held 10 December 2019, council accepted the resignation of long term CEO Carl Askew.
Shire President Cr David Menzel wished Mr Askew well and thanked him for his hard work and commitment over his tenure.
“On behalf of the Council of the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley I would like to recognise and acknowledge the hard work and commitment of our CEO Carl Askew as this will sadly be his last Christmas in the East Kimberley.
“Since his arrival in early 2015 there has been much to do and as many of us will remember we have had some challenges in the past including a Departmental Probity report and the appointment of a Commissioner for 12 months,” Cr Menzel said.
Cr Menzel acknowledged Mr Askew’s leadership within the Administration and our community and said he leaves behind a bright future for the organisation and community. He also noted the latest Annual Report, which provides a clean bill of health from the Auditors and is indicative of where Mr Askew has positioned the Shire as a local government.
“We have all our Strategic planning in place with new Community and Corporate Plans, a new Planning Scheme and Strategy, some long terms planning related to asset management in place, and of course a much stronger focus on economic development and I sincerely thank Carl for that service to our community,” he said.
Cr Menzel noted that in his five year term Mr Askew has worked closely and effectively with three Shire Presidents, three Councils and a Commissioner.
“Internally his focus has been on improving the Administration’s activities in procurement and purchasing, governance, finance, economic development, integrated planning and a strong senior management team.
“We now have all key planning documents in place and in more recent times our focus has been on delivering services, projects and programs to the community.
“As a Council we have also placed pressure on the administration to continue to find efficiencies, whilst maintaining service levels and standards, and Carl has delivered that despite two years of zero rate increases,” Cr Menzel said.
The Shire’s major projects - airport master planning, runway extension and leisure and aquatic centre redevelopment, are now at a stage where the Shire can seek external funding support.
“We have other exciting partnerships such as Airbus at Wyndham, youth services in Wyndham and Kununurra, a CCTV network in excess of $1m and stage 2 to follow, a trial for direct flights to Melbourne with Alliance Airlines and a number of key road assets such as Carlton Hill road proposed for improvement.
“On behalf of Council and the Administration I would like to thank Carl and acknowledge his wife Christina and daughter Beatrice and wish them all well for the future,” he said.
Mr Askew will depart his role on 31 January 2020 and Director Corporate Services, Vernon Lawrence, will move into the role of Acting CEO until the commencement of a new Chief Executive Officer.
FOR MEDIA COMMENT PLEASE CONTACT:
Cr David Menzel, Shire President, 0409 691 386
Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley
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