The North West Star has caught up with Mount Isa's new CEO David Keenan to find out how he is settling into the role.
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Hired as an interim measure for six months from his previous role as Southern Downs CEO, Mr Keenan is now five weeks into the job and said he has been meeting key stakeholders across the city.
"I've met with the hospital, I had a good meeting with the Mines yesterday, I've also met with the Water Board and the Chamber of Commerce so I have a good idea of where the different organisations are up to," Mr Keenan said.
More importantly Mr Keenan is getting to grips with issues facing his own organisation.
"Every Council has its financial issues and every council will also have challenges in relation to the replacement of infrastructure and planning new infrastructure," he said,
"The biggest issue here is water and making sure there is sufficient infrastructure for water, We need a standard of infrastructure that delivers water efficiently and as per the Australian drinking water guidelines."
Mr Keenan said he was working well with councillors who were doing a great job.
"COVID obviously has made it difficult for the council to bond as a group and limited interaction with the community but what strikes me is that they've all got their own portfolios and they all take responsibility, which is great," he said.
One of Mr Keenan's difficulties is leading with churn in staff, especially in leadership positions with a high turnover of directors in recent times.
"This is a problem across the board and some of those organisations I've spoken to they all say exactly the same thing," he said.
"The important thing we need to do is point out all the good things about Mount Isa, good public infrastructure like the great 50m pool, Buchanan Park and the Lake, these are assets that can attract people here in the longer term. Another part of that challenge was investing more in young people so that they might be persuaded to move here with their families."
Mr Keenan is on a six-month contract but would not be drawn on whether he would apply for the role permanently.
"I don't know, I'm going to have a good hard think about things and see how we go from there," he said.
"It strikes me we have some really good people in the organisation and a really good set of councillors."
Beyond water, Mr Keenan said his big challenge was to deliver on the capital works program.
"At the end of the year it sat at around $50m, it's probably going down a bit from there because some of funding we received needs to be phased over time," he said.
"There are also some roadworks we are doing that is important and the repair of the Civic Centre is really important."
The Civic Centre has been closed since March and Mr Keenan said the contract had been awarded and they were waiting for key components including the copper doors.
"The $700,000 project is scheduled to be complete by March but there may be some ways of bringing it forward," he said.
Mr Keenan said they were also working on masterplans for the library and Outback at Isa which will forecast where additional funding needs to be spent.
Council is also working on the business case for the $6m Materials Recovery Facility at the landfill which was due to be finished in a month's time while works were continuing on the refurbishment of the Camooweal Hall and the installation of three boards.
Mr Keenan was pleased at how the community consultation session on the flying foxes went on Thursday.
"Obviously there is no quick solution, but there is a role for council in advocacy to the other levels of government to see how they can improve people's lives impacted by the bats," he said.
The CEO said Mount Isa City Council did a good job of attracting funding.
"There is a new round of funding under Building Better Regions coming out of the federal government inviting applications in the next two to three weeks," he said.
"We need to see what new lines of funding come out of the Palaszczuk government because usually there is a machinery of government process and they'll come out with a lot of different kinds of funding. We can also look at more user pays rather than applying (charges) across the whole community."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
