New Plymouth District Council chief executive resigns

Craig Stevenson has resigned as CEO of New Plymouth District Council. Photo / supplied

New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) chief executive Craig Stevenson has resigned.

A statement published on the NPDC website on Friday says a complaint had been received about Stevenson.

"New Plymouth District Council received a complaint about the Chief Executive's conduct. Mr Stevenson has resigned."

Prior to taking up the position of CEO of NPDC nearly five years ago, Stevenson had been CEO of South Taranaki District Council for 14 years.

Last week it was reported Stevenson was on leave after a secret emergency meeting was held via Zoom on Thursday June 23, dealing with what was described as an employment issue. The public-excluded meeting, for which no agenda had been published before it took place, was to deal with "the terms of reference for an investigation subcommittee" according to an agenda posted online afterwards. All other details were withheld.

Today's statement contains very little detail, mainly repeating comments made by Mayor Neil Holdom earlier this week.

"NPDC has a highly capable leadership team which has a history of growing executives into chief executives and outperforming many larger councils in terms of quality of services delivered to our people and value," the statement said.

"Council has clear plans and strategies designed to ensure all members of our wider team understand their role and how they contribute to keeping our waka moving forward for our people."

In the past six months, two other members of the senior executive team at NPDC have left, with former deputy chief executive Kelvin Wright leaving in May to take on the role of CEO of Venture Taranaki, while head of infrastructure David Langford moved to Whanganui, where he has held the role of CEO of the district council there since the start of 2022.