A "new era" is being heralded at the Hawke's Bay Regional Council, with a chief executive set to be appointed soon.
The agenda for Wednesday's meeting states the council's corporate and strategic committee will be asked to appoint the organisation's new chief executive - who is not named.
Former long-term CE Andrew Newman announced his resignation in February. Since early April, Greg Woodham has been acting as interim chief executive.
Yesterday council chair Rex Graham said he could not comment on who the new chief executive was, because the process had not been completed yet.
"I think we've found ourselves an outstanding candidate," was all he would say. "I think its going to be fantastic for the organisation to have a CEO appointed . . . it's a new era for us really."
The individual had been chosen from a group of candidates with "stunning calibre".
"Right from the very beginning it was very difficult to reduce it down to a smaller number," Mr Graham said. "It's been great to see so many people stand up and put their hand up for this job from all over New Zealand."
He was not sure when the new CE would officially take up the role.
Also coming before the committee is a paper stating the former CE's resignation was announced in a 12-day window between two milestones of a council "operational efficiency" review.
The committee will be asked to receive a report - written by Mr Woodham - on the review which looked at the council's effectiveness and efficiency, and summarised that the council was in need of a "high-level strategic rethink".
The paper before the committee - also written by Mr Woodham - states he met with Mr Newman, councillor Neil Kirton and council corporate services group manager Paul Drury, and the review's terms of reference were agreed on February 15.
On February 23 Mr Newman officially announced his resignation, and on February 27 the project began.
When asked, Mr Graham said the review and Mr Newman's resignation were "definitely not related", and his announcement coming in the small window was just a coincidence.
Mr Newman had been with the regional council for 10 years - including three as chief executive of the council's investment arm.
A large part of his tenure was spent driving the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
Progress on the Ruataniwha Dam stalled with the election of a new group of councillors last year, which shifted the 5-4 split away from supporting the dam. Before the year was out a moratorium had been placed on further activity relating to the dam, and HBRIC Ltd chairman Andy Pearce had resigned.
When the committee is asked to appoint an individual to Mr Newman's former role on Wednesday, it is also recommended the committee exercise its delegated powers to make a decision which would have the same effect as the council itself could have done.