It is the CEO's role to deliver on the City's "VALUES" albeit in an inhertited paradigm

Our Vision,

Purpose and Values

Our Vision Inspired people, working together to create the best outcomes for our community.

Our Purpose

We are a progressive organisation, working with our community to create a positive future for Launceston.

Our Values

Our people matter

• we value clear and

• open communicationwe support and

• encourage each other

• we respect diversity

• we recognise individual needs, experience and strengths

We care about our community

• we take pride in our work and pursue a standard of excellence

• we genuinely listen, and value collaborative relationships

• we strive towards the best outcome for our community

• we make responsible and sustainable decisions

• We bring an open mind

We actively seek opportunities to continuously improve

• we respect and explore different ideas and perspectives

• we embrace change that leads to positive outcomes

• we value innovation and creativity

We go home safe and well

• we show care for people and look out for one another

• we speak up and support others to be healthy and safe

• we take personal responsibility for our own health and

• wellbeing

• we value work-life fit

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Sam Johnson appointed as new City of Launceston CEO PuPublished on 08 April 2024

Mr Sam Johnson OAM has today been named as the City of Launceston’s new Chief Executive Officer and is expected to take up the role in July.

City of Launceston Mayor Matthew Garwood said he was pleased to announce the appointment after an extensive national and international recruitment process conducted over the past four months.

"I'm excited to announce the appointment of Sam as our new Chief Executive Officer," Mayor Garwood said.

"We attracted a very large field of close to 40 high-quality candidates but despite tough competition Sam impressed the Councillor team with his visionary and high-energy approach, along with his obvious passion and drive for the Launceston community.

"Sam has multi sector experience, having worked earlier in his career in senior roles with ANZ along with five years as a very young Mayor at Port Augusta City Council.

"He is the outgoing CEO at the District Council of Mount Remarkable in South Australia, a role he's held since 2020.

"Sam was awarded an OAM for services to the Local Government sector in 2021.

"Sam will be moving from South Australia in the coming months with his wife and three young boys, who are very excited to move to Launceston.

Sam had this message for the Launceston community and staff of the City Council:

"What a wonderful opportunity the City of Launceston has offered me — to be your new Council CEO in one of the most beautiful, diverse and fastest growing cities in Tasmania!

"I am particularly looking forward to building new relationships with the wonderful staff and community members alike. I want to ensure that our teams have the resources to do their job effectively and to

support their professional goals, aspirations, and growth whilst working towards providing the very best service levels to the community.

"In this role, I will get out and about in order to meet as many community organisations and members as I can, as well as advocating strongly for the City and region into the future.

"I will be eager to hear where the community think that we can improve our services and processes. They can be assured I will identify priorities and act upon these in order to build an agile organisation for our community as it grows and shifts into the future in partnership with our dedicated Mayor and Councillor team.

"On a personal level, I am really looking forward to both working and living in this special place with my family and joining such a vibrant and incredible community."

Examiner 'We need to lock in': Council boss says focus needs to shift towards action By Joe Colbrook . November 17 2024 - 5:30am

"Unfazed" is one word Sam Johnson uses to describe himself. "Public servant" and "honest" are others.

The former mayor of Port Augusta in South Australia, and Order of Australia Medal recipient, has spent the past five-odd months finding his feet as the chief executive officer at the City of Launceston council.

Speaking with The Examiner in April after the council announced his appointment, Mr Johnson said Launceston was "somewhere that's going places".

He still stands by that claim, but adds that it'll take some work to get there.

"If we get it right over the next five years it'll be a different look and a different feel, and not in a bad way, so that the next generation that is coming through actually looks at Launceston as the place that they want to be," Mr Johnson said.

City of Launceston council chief executive officer Sam Johnson has spent five months familiarising himself with the role, and has a lot to say about it. Picture by Phillip Biggs

The road to somewhere
Since his appointment to the role, Mr Johnson has focused on the next decade, asking elected representatives to think about how they would like Launceston to look by 2035.

Getting to that point was easier said than done.

"We've got some 37 strategies, which are all great strategies, but we actually need to lock in and actually start to deliver on some of these strategies," Mr Johnson said.

"Locking in" meant deciding which demographics the council focused its efforts on.

While it had an obligation to provide services to all ratepayers, Mr Johnson said the council was trying too hard to appeal to everyone.

It was trying to be "everything to everyone" with its policies.

As Australia’s largest cities are experiencing record population growth with cities like Sydney and Melbourne adding more than 110,000 per year, some of Australia’s best-known regional towns are struggling to attract numbers.

Instead, the council needed to single out a particular demographic - like the 18 to 25-year-olds who were migrating away from regional towns in droves - and appeal to them specifically.

In the chief executive's eyes, this was far better than doing nothing, and it would save him and the 12 elected representatives the embarrassment of having their legacy be one of inaction.

"We need to be bold, we need to be aspirational, we need to take the risks. Otherwise, the community is probably, rightfully so, going to criticise us for being asleep at the wheel," Mr Johnson said.

Any substantial transformation to the city, whether implementing the urban greening strategy or rolling out the revised second stage of the City Heart project, required substantial amounts of money.

Mr Johnson said that was within the council's means thanks to former chief executive Michael Stretton.

"We have the ability to spend some serious amounts of money, not flippantly, but some serious amounts of money thanks to the good work of what my predecessor and his team had put in place," he said.

Sam Johnson says the council needs to put its money where its mouth is and start acting on its future strategies.

A mover and a shaker
Having worked on both sides of local government, as an elected representative and unelected executive, Mr Johnson knows the game he is playing.

He said he got on well with the councillors, particularly mayor Matthew Garwood, but was well aware his job was to offer frank and fearless advice to the elected representatives of the day.

"I'm not emotionally invested," Mr Johnson said.

"If I present something and the council says no, then I don't walk away getting bitter and vindictive and twisted about it. It is what it is. They have to own it equally, though. They get it wrong; they've got to own that." .

Mr Johnson has had to make some tough calls since arriving in Launceston. .

As part of efforts to reform the council, some senior leadership team members will not have their contracts renewed. .

Mr Johnson said this would bring "clarity" to the organisation and wasn't a precursor to wider job cuts.

"No one's being made redundant. We're proposing to grow the organisation so we can actually increase our service profile, not decrease it," he said.

It would also bring further accountability and transparency to the organisation - another of Mr Johnson's pet projects.

While some matters had to be discussed confidentially, he said the council had to be prepared to defend any decisions it made publicly and remain accountable to the ratepayers.

Although he was on a five-year contract, the former Port Augusta resident said he was in it for the long haul.

After moving to the island state in the dead of winter and "jetting around in shorts and slippers" despite sub-zero temperatures, he felt as though he had Tasmania in his blood.

He also had skin in the game. "I chose to uproot my whole family and move interstate and come here, and we love the lifestyle. We want to be able to try and get that experience with other people," Mr Johnson said.

It is the CEO's role to deliver on the City's "VALUES" albeit in an inhertited paradigm