Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) has gone back to the drawing board for a process to recruit a replacement for outgoing chief executive Mike Theelen, who will step down from the role in February 2026.

Some councillors expressed frustration that the process had to be “restarted from the beginning” when the new process was discussed at last week’s full council meeting (Thursday November 27), and tension was sparked over whether it would mean some councillors would have to work on a Saturday (December 20).

The issue follows a stoush during the election campaign when councillor Niki Gladding criticised the selection of a recruitment agency by council’s head of human resources.

She said the selection of a recruitment agency without elected representatives’ input did not follow best practice as defined by the office of the auditor general, and risked a perception of mistrust.

Mayoral candidate (and now mayor) John Glover weighed in on the issue, saying he was alarmed recruiters were being considered “behind closed doors”, and urging council to halt the process.

Then-mayor Glyn Lewers defended the process as appropriate, and said the recruiter would meet with the new full council to develop a recruitment process - in line with Local Government New Zealand’s good practice guide on recruiting a chief executive.

Read more: Recruitment row sparks clash among QLDC councillor, mayor, and candidate

QLDC corporate services general manager Meaghan Miller told councillors last week the process needed to be “moved along at pace”, with the role of recruiter advertised and candidates evaluated before Christmas.

The recruitment process would be delegated to a committee (although the decision to appoint the CE would be reserved to full council), and an interim CE would have to be appointed to cover time between Mike’s departure and the appointment of his replacement.

“We need to very promptly turn our attention to [this] after today,” Meaghan said.

“Some [councillors’] leave applications may need to be reconsidered if we want to keep this moving.”

Deputy mayor Quentin Smith said there had been “a lot of back and forth” on the issue.

“We’ve got it to where we need to get to to ensure that council own the process, it’s undertaken urgently and that we have control over the decisions it wants to have control over,” he said.

“This is a really important job… “

Councillor Gavin Bartlett said he was concerned councillors and staff had “spent six weeks spinning our wheels on this issue when it’s so important”.

“It also concerns me that machinations have happened in small groups behind closed doors, which, when we’re trying to be a council that gets things done and does it in the open and transparently, it hasn’t really looked that way to me.

“Despite calls to the contrary, we had a recruitment consultant appointed and the appointment was completed by staff with the appropriate delegations to do so … with the intention that as a new council we would be able to hit the ground running and be in the position to immediately commence the work we needed to do on this most important of tasks.”

Instead, he said, “we’re in the position we are in today to renew the process from the beginning”. 

“The way it’s played out has not really been ideal in my mind,” he said, adding he hoped the council could move forward “with more openness and transparency”.

While councillor Matt Wong agreed, councillor Jon MItchell said he was pleased the council was “making a shared decision .. so we’re on a solid footing”.

“I think we need to put those issues behind us,” he said.

The new process was approved, with the mayor saying the council had set itself “a very aspirational window”.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App/Supplied