Two independent members have either resigned or stepped aside from the committee which oversees the performance of Warrnambool City Council's CEO after Peter Schneider was sacked.
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Their loss from the Chief Executive Employment Matters Advisory Committee - which is also made up of three councillors - has left mayor Tony Herbert questioning whether even he and his fellow councillors could stay on in their roles on the committee.
"My question is? How do the three of us - Cr Robert Anderson, Cr Peter Sycopoulis and myself - continue in this role when clearly our recommendations aren't worth the paper they're written on?" Cr Herbert said.
Independent chair Rob Wallis said as a result of what happened this week he felt he had no option but to resign, while independent facilitator Ruth McGowan has also signalled she would step aside.
Cr Herbert said the committee met quarterly, purely to discuss the CEO's performance and whether key performance indicators were met.
"We monitor and discuss and ensure as best we can that the KPIs are all met in the manner they've been agreed to," he said.
"Everything we've put up has been endorsed.
"It would appear a very simple process that if any councillors had issues with the CEO's performance, members of this committee might have been approached."
Cr Anderson said the committee was elected by all seven councillors and the last three reports it put forward were unanimously endorsed.
It was also a six-one vote to endorse a CPI pay increase, which Mr Schneider knocked back, he said. "Then all of sudden this comes out. That's the part that annoys me," he said.
Cr Anderson said people were asking what Mr Schneider did wrong but he had no answer for them because his performance reviews and KPIs had been met.
With eight weeks left until councillors go into caretaker mode in the lead up to October elections, Cr Anderson said he would still work with councillors because he had made a promise to the community that elected him. "I've been elected to do a job by the community and that's what I'm here to do," he said.
Cr Herbert said he was still "very much committed" to completing the council's plan with key priority projects ensuring there was a funding commitment from the state government for the Princes Highway upgrade as well as lobbying to get the millions needed for the breakwater upgrade and safer boating facilities.
Mr Schneider was sacked on Monday night in a four-three vote of councillors.
The four councillors, in an opinion piece in The Standard, pointed to issues such as a poor performance in the community satisfaction survey and staff survey and neglect of the city's 2040 plan.
South-west MP Bev McArthur has called for the councillors to stand down and an independent monitor brought in immediately.
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