So, who is Invercargill's new council CEO?
Michael Day arrived in Invercargill a couple of years ago thinking it might be a stepping stone to a council CEO somewhere else in NZ. He's now about to start as the Invercargill City Council's CEO.
Michael Day supports English Premier League football team Liverpool - he has done so for almost his entire life.
It hasn’t always sat well with some of his colleagues at the Invercargill City Council who prefer other teams. At times it triggers some pointed banter.
In a funny sort of way, Day says that mirrors the way he feels Local Government should operate.
“It’s always good to have a diverse opinion across the table. It’s the same with politics, I enjoy that from that perspective, it’s how you get fair views coming across.”
Day has just been appointed as Invercargill City Council’s new chief executive.
He is currently the council’s Group Manager Finance and Assurance manager and will take over from current chief executive Clare Hadley.
Prior to joining the Invercargill City Council he worked for the Christchurch City Council in different roles.
It included managing the council’s logistical response during the Canterbury earthquakes and recovery. No small task.
“It taught me to not take anything for granted and act in a calm manner regardless of the situation. Because it can affect the people around you in quite profound ways.”
Day arrived in Invercargill two and half years ago with his wife and two children to take on the finance job at the council.
He wasn’t completely foreign to the city. Day has family roots in Invercargill through his grandmother. He also had a good mate who lived in Invercargill so visited often.
Day acknowledges it’s been his career goal to become a council chief executive. Although he admits he initially viewed Invercargill as a stepping stone to get to that point somewhere else in New Zealand.
He’s since fallen in love with Invercargill though, and his family has also settled.
When the Invercargill job was advertised, Day decided to put his name forward.
“For me, family is very important, and they’ve settled in Invercargill. So that’s paramount for me.”
It’s a job with a pretty hefty pay packet. Somewhere close to $350k if we are going to be to the point.
But with that pay packet comes plenty of responsibility. There are hundreds of staff to start with, mixed in with meeting its about $160m annual budgets.
The scope is wide in terms of what the council does. From operating public swimming pools to streetlights to building consents.
Day feels ready to take the helm of the Invercargill City Council.
“I’ve been up for challenges before. I’ve proved it before stepping in to be logistics manager for the earthquakes. I’ll work through it one step at a time but I believe I’ve done my grounding and I’m ready for it.
“I will need support around me, and I think I’ve got the support networks around me.”
Day isn’t actually sure when he will start in the job with that still being worked through.
“Any change is interesting in regard to that transition period, particularly around the CE side of it. So, I will work with whatever transition arrangements that will be in place.
“At the moment I’m just working through each day.”
What about the interesting dynamic of taking over from his current boss Clare Hadley?
“From my point of view, there are no ill feelings or discontent from the two of us. From my perspective, I’ve had a really healthy working relationship with Clare in the past so hopefully, we can continue during this transition period.”
“No transition is easy, but I don’t think it’s any more or less difficult. In fact, I probably think it’s a little bit easier from the perspective I’ve worked with all of the staff. The staff know me, they know how I work. It’s not an unknown coming in.”
Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark was pleased to get to the point they have now made a decision around the chief executive job. He agrees it’s probably the biggest decision councillors will have to make during the term.
The process started with 33 applicants before eventually being narrowed down to two.
The 12 councillors and Clark then each got a vote as to their choice. It was a confidential voting system so other councillors were unaware of who voted which way.
An independent consultant was used to tabulate the voting results, with a councillor scrutinising that. It was confirmed there was a majority in favour of Day but the exact voting numbers were not revealed to the elected members.
“We don’t know what the size of the majority was, just that there was a majority,” Clark says.
Clark is also unaware as to how the transition period will play out and at the time of speaking to The Tribune, he had yet to have a discussion with Hadley about how it might work.
How challenging was it to break the news of Day’s appointment to Hadley?
“You are assuming she applied, and that is something I cannot comment on. I cannot say who else was in the selection process,” Clark says.
Back to Day to finish up.
When Day does start in the job what does he see as the most pressing issue?
“I don’t think it comes as a surprise that it’s meeting the commitments to the community. We’ve got a rather large project sitting there called 1225 [museum rebuild] and I think the commitment to delivering on that project is right at the forefront of my mind.”