• PHOTO: Coonamble Mayor Tim Horan congratulates Paul Gallagher on his appointment.
RETURNING resident Paul Gallagher has been announced as the incoming permanent General Manager for Coonamble Shire Council and is set to commence towards the end of January 2023.
Mr Gallagher had a final interview with Coonamble Shire Council on Wednesday 14 December and was offered the position the same day.
Paul and his family – wife Vicki and children Joshua and Samatha lived in Coonamble for five years up until 2000.
During that time Paul was Deputy Director of Engineering at Coonamble Shire Council and says he’s excited to return to Coonamble and ‘pay back’ the support he was given by council.
“I’ll basically be heading back home,” Mr Gallagher said.
“Coonamble council invested in me when I was there – I did my Graduate Diploma in Engineering and then a Masters in Engineering Management – and I believe in paying back.”
Mr Gallagher had applied for the GM position earlier in the year then put his application on hold when Coonamble Shire Council decided to defer the appointment of a permanent GM.
During that time he has been working at Uralla Shire Council as Executive Director Infrastructure & Development after leaving his previous role at Nambucca shire where he had spent 12 years as Assistant General Manager of Engineering Services.
“The last ten years have gone by so fast. It’s been natural disaster after natural disaster after natural disaster,” he said.
“We had drought, fires and the floods at Nambucca.”
“In 2019 Nambucca shire lost 65 homes in the fires and after working through the emergency we went into recovery mode before we got smashed with one of the largest floods I’ve seen.”
Originally from Newcastle, where he attended school and met Vicki, Mr Gallagher has spent the majority of his career in western councils.
“When I married my wife I said ‘stick with me and I’ll take you places’ … so we went out to Condobolin, Narromine, Narrandera and Coonamble.”
From Coonamble, the Gallaghers moved briefly to Rylstone and then to a more senior position at Merriwa, before heading to Nambucca.
“Vicki is very keen to go back, it’s always a family decision,” Paul said.
“We’ve still got a lot of friends out there and we’ve been back a lot to 18ths, 21sts and unfortunately some funerals.”
Mr Gallagher will take over the reins from Interim General Manager Ross Earl, who arrived in August on a short term contract.
While he knows there is a lot of work to be done, Mr Gallagher expects few surprises.
“The first thing I looked at were the financial indicators, they’re good, council is very healthy financially.
They have some staffing issues and morale seems to be a problem so I’ll be looking to build the relationship back into the community, between residents and staff. My theme is ‘working together to achieve together, our council and our community’.”
He says that the challenges are similar right across local government, in both big and small councils.
“Even in the larger councils it’s the same issues with staffing and finances,” he said. “Getting quality staff is an industry-wide problem at the moment and people have a choice of jobs in all industries.
“I’m very big on grow-your-own, by tapping into youth and trainees and I hope to bring that back into council. That’s the exciting part about it all.”
“It’s about being positive and moving forward,” he said.
“I know roads is the biggest issue out there and they haven’t been doing gravel re-sheeting for some years but they’re running five graders and with the new approval to reinstate borrow pits there’s a lot of potential for improvement.
“My first port of call will be the Roads Committee and working with rural residents.”
Cr Horan says he is very pleased to welcome Mr Gallagher.
“Paul’s experience in local government and his keenness to commit to our community really stood out,” he said.
“His engineering experience and management skills are what will take us forward in the new year.”
Mr Gallagher says he is also keen to work with the Chamber of Commerce and will be “sticking his head in the door” of local businesses.
“You’ve got to be prepared to take a bit of flak but you’ve got to be able to listen and respond,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to working with staff, councillors and the community to build some stability within council and create the council as an employer of choice.”