Melville's Pale, Stale, Male ..... FAIL

Marten Tieleman has been Melville CEO for almost 5 years.???He has failed to transform the City’s culture as the residents, the former Minister for Local Government David Templeman, current Mayor George Gear, and other Elected members have called for.

Residents are still discontent and suffering from…??not getting proper answers to public questions, inadequate consideration in planning decisions, a poor tree canopy, building complaints being ignored, obstructive Freedom of Information processes, a lack of transparency on the City’s rates, costs and other things, ongoing poor customer service; the list could go on.

Mayor George Gear got elected on a campaign promising the rebuilding of confidence in the Council, restoring integrity to City processes and decision-making, mending relations with ratepayers and residents, and giving ratepayers better value for money (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gear).

However, we continue to see instances of the City’s management deny failures, attacking the complainant and trying to reverse the victim and offender (DARVO).???In short, the City’s management often blames residents or others to cover-up and obfuscate their own management failures; just one of many examples of the ongoing cultural problems we see.

Tieleman has failed to deliver George Gear’s promises and vision.

Tieleman is not totally to blame for his failures.??The previous Council, under Russell 'rejected' Aubrey, selected Tieleman and lumbered us with a pale, stale male who was bound to FAIL.?

The current Council must bear some of the blame.???Council has not properly managed his performance; for example, Council has not given him a proper performance review for well over a year.??There continues to be much talk about promised transformation at Council meetings, yet we have not seen substantial and tangible improvements and outcomes.?????

The current Mayor Gear led Council can make amends.???Tieleman’s contract ends in November this year.???Council now has the choice NOT TO RENEW Tieleman’s contract in the coming months.?

All Elected Members, particularly those considering running again in October this year, esp. Mayor gear, must realise Tieleman is a liability to their re-election chances.???Elected Member should make the decision now to find us someone much better to lead the much-needed transformation at the City as a start to restoring the community’s confidence in Council, and the administration as Mayor Gear promised us all 4 years ago.

So, why do we think Tieleman is pale and stale.

Tieleman is an accountant and has been in those types of roles for 90% of his career from 1982.???Tieleman has been heard to say something like “I don’t know – I am only an accountant” on occasions since becoming the CEO.

Tieleman has only worked in the insular and slow-moving local government sector for his entire career, having worked for the Cities of Perth, Darwin, and Melville.??He has been at Melville for the last 21 years.

Tieleman’s competencies and experience lack depth, breadth, and colour.

We don’t think Tieleman even knows what good looks like, let alone have the competencies to deliver it???

The Melville community deserves better, we need a different CEO.

This opinion piece was inspired by?https://www.innovationaus.com/male-pale-and-stale-will-lead-to-fail/;??which we think is still relevant for the City of Melville?