Shire of Augusta-Margaret River chief Stephanie Addison-Brown wins contract extension amid debate on targets

Shire councillors have backed chief executive Stephanie Addison-Brown for another five years in the top job, though last week’s approval wasn’t without disagreement. First-term Cr Brian Daniel moved a change to the contract extension and updated a key performance indicator for the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River’s chief — and then refused to back the motion. His sole vote against the approval stemmed from long-running concerns KPIs at the Shire lacked rigour and tangible outcomes. Cr Daniel’s opposition comes as the Shire reports less-than-admirable outcomes from its latest community satisfaction survey. Coincidentally, the change Cr Daniels demanded to the chief’s KPIs included renaming a planned internal Shire staff satisfaction survey to an “engagement” survey instead. “The difference in satisfaction survey will state how you treat your employees . . .(whereas) an engaged survey shows you how committed people are in an organisation,” he said. “It relates across to productivity and efficiency.” Despite the ructions, other councillors spoke highly of this year’s consultant-led process to finetune Ms Addison-Brown’s KPIs which determine much of the local government’s overarching focus. “I’ve been extremely pleased with the quality of advice and guidance we’ve been given as councillors,” Cr David Binks said. Cr Kylie Kennaugh said the latest review was the best process she’d seen in eight years. In a media release, Shire president Paula Cristoffanini said the council was “delighted to present this comprehensive list of KPIs to the community following a genuine and collaborative development process”. “Council has considered emerging issues and feedback from the community through a number of consultations, meetings and surveys throughout the year including a review of values undertaken by council and Shire staff, and this was at the heart of the themes in this list,” Cr Cristoffanini said. Key priority areas included biodiversity protection and customer service enhancement, the release said. Outside of the council meeting, Cr Daniel told the Times he remained displeased at the process which engaged “a retired local government employee who had never been a CEO themselves”. As the Times reports this week, Cr Daniel is seeking another term at this October’s Shire council election to continue pressing his case for the local government to improve its engagement and service to ratepayers. The former senior pharmaceutical company executive said his own research showed “KPIs across the local government sector are very poorly written”. In the Shire statement, Ms Addison-Brown said she was “excited to get started on some bigger picture focus areas with a longer-term impact”. “Our talented and dedicated Shire staff are keen to continue to engage with community and stakeholders as we collectively work for the betterment of the environment and the wellbeing of the people who call the shire home,” she said. “We have already developed a customer experience strategy this year as well as undertaking work to commence mainstreaming biodiversity considerations throughout the organisation, so these new KPIs demonstrate our commitment to strengthening our focus on these.” Ms Addison-Brown’s new contract expires in July 2028.