Mayor Tom Tate confirmed city councillors voted Wednesday to start from scratch to source a new chief in a special meeting after the resignation of CEO David Edwards last week.

Edwards, who won the job over the city’s long-serving CEO Dale Dickson, officially resigned on Wednesday, April 14 citing health reasons.

He only started the job on Monday 22 March, then took leave almost immediately. He was due to return to work on 12 April, but councillors were informed he would not be returning.

Within days of winning the role, it emerged that Edwards had been found to have committed three counts of misconduct by a State Government department in a former role that he held. However, Edwards rejected the findings and said he was considering legal action against “a small group of senior public servants” who he claimed had targeted him.

Edwards, the son of Bjelke-Petersen-era deputy premier and treasurer Sir Llew Edwards, was among 80 applicants for the City of Gold Coast position earlier this year.

On 22 February, the shortlist of five candidates, including Edwards and former CEO Dickson, was presented to council.

The former director-general of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning and projects chief executive at the Department of Innovation and Tourism Industry Development beat Dickson for the top job by a vote of 14-1.

Tate said the super majority decision at a special meeting on Wednesday to open the new recruitment process meant Chief Operating Officer Joe McCabe would remain as acting CEO until after the Gold Coast 2021-22 budget was delivered in mid-June. This puts McCabe in charge of delivering the city’s $1.7 billion budget – a job that was meant to be the first order of business for the new chief.

“This is a fresh approach. Anyone can apply,’’ Tate said.

“Final nominations considered in the last application can re-apply. It may be that they only need to put in an expression-of-interest given they have previously applied but we will leave that with the recruitment company to determine.”

Tate said he expected an appointment by September.

“It will take a few months, but our confidence is that we will get very top end applicants,” he said.

“I would want a CEO of the city of Gold Coast that has that have-a go spirit, but at the same time attention to detail.

“We want to make sure our Budget is in order and that our rates bill is kept at CPI or below, so a mixture of that would be wonderful.”