Kristen Desmond plans to carry over her values as a disability advocate to her new West Tamar Council chief executive role.
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"When I've got my disability advocate hat on, I do hold the government to account for accountability and transparency and being inclusive," Ms Desmond said.
"Those values I live by. It is exactly the same here."
Four weeks into taking over from long-time general manager Rolph Vos, Ms Desmond was already full of praise for the council staff, councillors and the community.
"I'm loving it, the team are fantastic," she said.
Councillors unanimously supported her appointment, which Ms Desmond described as a confidence booster, particularly for the organisation's staff.
"That gives me real confidence in terms of their understanding of where I want to take the organisation, they're backing for that and really that we're starting off on the right foot," she said.
She said the top of her to-do list was to make sure she enacted the council's vision to "create an inclusive community where people want to live, work and invest".
"... because what couldn't you like about the beautiful West Tamar? It's a beautiful place."
Some major projects coming up for the council include the Gravelly Beach and Beauty Point master plans, as well as a new school at Legana.
"There are lots of different projects going on at the moment, but the thing I love the most with local government is making a difference on the ground to my community," Ms Desmond said.
"So one of the things I'm really looking forward to over the coming weeks is getting to know our community and community groups well."
The West Tamar Council has come under scrutiny over the past few years following a workplace bullying investigation in 2021 and how they employed staff earlier this year.
While before her time, Ms Desmond said it was "important to remember a whole lot of people in the council who strive to make a difference for their community".
"It's time to focus on the future and how we can make things better because that's what the council have hired me to do," she said.
"The staff are telling me they want to move on, and that's what we're going to do.
"I want to make the West Tamar Council an employer of choice. That's something we want under our strategic plan, and it's something I'm sure we can do because everybody I've met here has been doing a really good job."
She enters the council position after being George Town Council's director of organisational performance, strategy and engagement.
Ms Desmond said the broad role provided "excellent" training to take the next step as CEO.
"Making a difference to your local community, I don't think there's a better way of doing that, other than through local government because we are the closest of government to community," she said.
"The thing I love about local government is that you can see the difference you're making to the community."
In her role, she said she would engage with councillors, staff and community to make a difference.
"I want to make the West Tamar better tomorrow than it is today," Ms Desmond said.
"I've got a great group of councillors who can help provide me with vision, and a magnificent set of staff who help me operationalise that vision and make it a reality."
Ms Desmond said she was looking forward to the challenge of her first CEO position.
"The community's been really welcoming as well, so I think I couldn't ask for a better start and I intend to continue the way we've started," she said.
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