Chris Oldfield and Nasik Swami, Naracoorte Community News

Naracoorte Lucindale Council CEO Trevor Smart has resigned after six years in the top job and is looking forward to spending more time with his family.

Mr Smart has spent 41 years in local government and six years with Naracoorte Lucindale Council.

In a bid to help the council transition to a new CEO, he will stay on until the end of February, unless a new executive is found beforehand.

Mayor Patrick Ross said he advised elected members of Mr Smart’s decision last Friday and staff were also informed on the same day.

“His resignation letter, which I forwarded to all elected members with a covering note from myself of when I received it, is a letter of resignation and retirement,” Mr Ross said.

“Trevor Smart is very good at his job. For a first-time council member/mayor, to have a chief executive officer of the calibre and experience of Trevor Smart just cannot be underestimated.

“The knowledge of 41 years of life in local government, the networks of people and his peers make an enormous difference to a new mayor.

“It also brings its challenges for the CEO, where a mayor has not been in local government, and they may have good intentions and may sometimes be ambitious.

“And then for a mayor to get an understanding of the workings of local government at an NLC level, an understanding of the workflow, management flow, councillor flow – it takes a little time.

“And Mr Smart, although I think he may have been somewhat reserved about his new mayor (being Mr Ross), we came to an understanding that we were not dissimilar in character and work ethic, and that has made it a great partnership to date.

“And, as we move towards the end of his tenure, both he and I wish to ensure that the projects which need to be continued or brought to fruition, do happen.

“In the meantime, we will sit down and decide what the major or most important issues are that he is fully across (and) can, you know, bring to some finalisation or towards some finalisation before he passes the baton on to his successor.”

Mr Ross said he believed Mr Smart as CEO had a very close rein on what he did as well as his executive management team, which flowed through the organisation.

“He certainly is across, in a management sense, all the activities of council.

“But as the CEO, his expectations of his management, of his executive team, is that they report up to him, ensuring that the budget is absolutely adhered to and to absolutely get the best deal possible for the council, which means the ratepayers.

“I’m sure we can say that Trevor Smart is conservative, as are most councillors. Councillors generally are a conservative bunch in rural South Australia, and they certainly are financially prudent.

“If Trevor was running a private business, he would ensure that the equity of the business was high and that all the creditors were paid on time to maintain a good financial rating.”

Mr Ross said he recalled the time during Covid-19 and in November 2022, when he was elected, many works projects had not been completed because of the pandemic.

As a result, the council had $12 million cash building up from uncompleted projects – more than a year’s total rate revenue.

Since then, many of the works that could not be completed have been done now, with the associated allocations being spent.

But sometimes grossly inflated quotes for projects were in excess of 200 and 300 per cent of what council’s estimate would be.

“So that made it quite difficult during the post-Covid era, but now it is becoming more stable,” Mr Ross said.

Last year Mr Ross reaffirmed his intentions as a one-term mayor.

“Over the past four or five months, Mr Smart and I have had many conversations about family life and the joys of being a grandparent and having family close by,” Mr Ross said.

“He certainly does enjoy family life, and he does enjoy being a grandparent. He has grandchildren living locally here in the South East, and he loves the opportunity to spend time with them.

“Trevor took some time off just recently, and during that period, it became clear to him that he might like to pursue the notion of retirement.

“For someone with his experience, there would be many opportunities in the future to do interim CEO positions.

“Mr Smart would certainly be very capable of stepping into any council, certainly within regional SA, and being able to maintain the status quo or ensure that business as usual could be maintained until they found a new CEO.

“But he has intimated to me that he has absolutely no plans over the next nine months in any way, shape or form.

“I do know that he intends to go to the next (cricket) test match in England.”

Mr Smart grew up on the West Coast and was educated at Kimba Area School where he graduated before joining the District Council of Kimba as a customer service officer.

As it was a smaller council at the time, Mr Smart was initially required to do tasks such as monitor the payroll and accounts.

But over time his role expanded to include various other administrative functions within the council.

He eventually moved to Ceduna where he spent 14 years and worked in various management roles before becoming CEO of that council in 2010.

In 2012 Mr Smart moved to the SE and joined the Grant District Council for six years, replacing its CEO Russell Peate who had resigned to take up a position at Mid-Murray Council.

In 2018 Naracoorte Lucindale CEO Dr Helen Macdonald resigned after being at the helm for six years.

Mr Smart, who had been with Grant for six years, resigned from that council and six years ago, in April 2018, became Naracoorte Lucindale’s new CEO.

Talking about the reason for his resignation to The News, Mr Smart said it was “more likely called retirement”.

He said he had been in local government service for about 41 years, and it was now time for him to move on and enjoy family time and other recreational pursuits.

When asked if everything was okay at the council, Mr Smart said:

“As far as how the council is placed, that’s best left to our elected members to make that call.

“It’s (council) in a “reasonably strong” financial position and everything is on the go.

“I think with the council, everything is pretty well on track.”

He told this newspaper [Naracoorte Community News] that he had no job or work planned post-resignation.

This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.