Central Coast Council administrator, Dick Persson, has terminated the employment of the council's chief executive Gary Murphy.
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The termination is in accordance with the provisions of Murphy's Contract of Employment.
Recruitment of a new chief executive will commence shortly.
Acting chief executive Rik Hart and chief operating officer Malcolm Ryan will head the organisation in the interim.
Mr Persson was appointed Administrator of the Council on November 30 by Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock as councillors were suspended in the face of an expected council deficit of $89 million.
The state government was also forced to pay $6.2 million in emergency funding to ensure thousands of council workers and suppliers were paid.
The council had approached the government seeking the funding.
The council blamed its dire financial position on "a year of natural disasters and the impact of COVID-19.
Its budgetary position had deteriorated since March, with its deficit blowing out from $41 million to $89 million.
Mr Persson, who served as an administrator at several Sydney councils, will hand down his preliminary report into the financial crisis facing the council on December 3.
The report is expected to outline the root cause of the blow out and also consider courses of action.
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Central Coast council is one of eight councils that have notified the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of their intention to apply for a special variation to increase their income from rates above the rate peg in 2021-22.
Special variations allow councils to increase their general income by more than the rate peg to fund infrastructure and additional services, or to improve their financial sustainability.
"In assessing applications IPART will be mindful of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, bushfires and drought on both ratepayers and councils," Tribunal member Deborah Cope said.
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