PERTH city council’s new CEO will be Michelle Reynolds, currently CEO of the Rottnest Island Authority.

Ms Reynolds is due to start August 4 when current CEO Murray Jorgensen’s contract ends. The commissioners sitting in for an elected council are happy with Mr Jorgensen’s work but from the beginning he was intended to be a short appointment to get the city back on track.

Ms Reynolds isn’t taking interviews this week but Mr Hammond said she “has a long and successful career as a senior public servant”. 

She’s been CEO at the RIA from January 2017, and before that was CEO of Workcover from 2008.

She’s done a few stints with the Department of Premier and Cabinet across different governments, working in the Public Sector Management division from 1994 to 2008. She was seconded to the DPC in 2012 to develop the state’s first Emergency Preparedness Report, and in 2013 to assist then-premier Colin Barnett in his role as science minister. 

A new council and lord mayor is due to be elected in October. They’ll have about four months to test the waters with the new CEO before her six month probation period review.

The inquiry into the city’s malfunctions during 2015 to 2018 was due to be out this week on April 30 but inquirer Tony Power has requested another extension due to Coronavirus-related disruption.

By DAVID BELL