It is clear even on the terrace of her favourite Buninyong cafe, where the interim CEO meets The Courier as her short but eventful spell at the helm of the City of Ballarat comes to a close.

Most of the juggernauts that rumble down the Midland Highway are greeted with a wince as she sips a double espresso in front of the Old Bluestone Cafe.

Ms Dore is unashamedly keen on a bypass to restore a measure of tranquillity to her adopted hometown.

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But that attitude shifts for certain vehicles. At one point, she waves enthusiastically at a passing garbage truck. Mistakenly, as it happens: "Oh, it's Cleanaway - I'm waving at the wrong truck," she says. Later, she times the greeting right as a truck emblazoned with the City of Ballarat insignia circles the roundabout and heads south towards roadworks near Durham Lead.

It does not seem at all contrived. Even one former colleague with little reason to speak warmly of Ms Dore described her as a CEO for blue collar workers.

It was a tone she struck almost from the first moment she arrived last June. Having made a successful pitch to councillors on how to recover from a critical Ombudsman's report that had already cost a director and the previous CEO their jobs, she went straight to the depot on her first day at work. Just before arriving at the cafe, she had spent two hours on the rubbish collecting rounds.

"I had a wonderful chat with one of the supervisors and the truck driver," she says. "That is where the value is for me.That's why I started at the depot in the first place. I promised I would do it again. I didn't get time until now but it teaches you a lot because they're the visible services."

A lot has been packed in between that first depot visit and now, as the new CEO Evan King prepares for his official start this Monday.

In June, Ms Dore promised to take the organisation to basecamp for a new CEO to travel upwards from there. The entire executive team has since departed and been re-organised and replaced. A cultural review has been carried out by employment consultant Susan Halliday and made public - albeit in anonymised form and against the counsel of many within the City of Ballarat.

So has she achieved what she set out to do? "I hope so," she says. "I have had people say they feel better, had a union organiser say people are starting to smile again. That's what makes it worth it."

"One of my executive managers told me this morning we were beyond base camp and I was very pleased with that. I think there's a sense of optimism."

Ms Dore says the exercise to make such wholesale changes to the executive team had come at a cost - but significantly less than a figure in excess of a million dollars put to her.

"It's less than a half [a million dollars] - but still, it's ratepayers' money," she says. "I am more than happy to say that the cost was moderate in this overall context... a couple of the contracts were" - she pauses - "generous. Let's leave it at that."

The Halliday cultural report too was a big strand to her initial pitch for the job. With some damning revelations - including behaviour that led to at least two people having their jobs terminated - it created waves within the organisation and beyond.

"I said right from the start that I would make it public. There are some things in there that perhaps people would see as airing dirty linen."

She speaks of colleagues having a "visible reaction" when they were briefed on it. "Certainly people were anxious about it being public. In the end I think it's better getting it out there."

"I know council is taking it very seriously. The audit and risk committee is taking it seriously. They will want to monitor it on a regular basis."

As for the job itself, she says she knew what she was taking on - and that is what she found. "I always thought it was going to be a major challenge. But I knew it was short-term and it's so different being an interim CEO."

Even the open hostility between some of the council group did not faze her, she says. "It's like all councils, unfortunately you get factions or disagreements with individuals - that's human nature. Newcastle Council was the worst ever. Nothing will compare with that because of the factions. I [was] the longest serving general manager [at Newcastle]. It didn't do my health any good."

And the motivation for taking up the Ballarat job at a time of life when most people are easing back? "Because I am proud of my city and passionate and invested in it and most of the people at that organisation are too," she says.

She acknowledges being tempted to stay on, and put her hat in the ring for the permanent job before withdrawing it. "It wouldn't have been right," she explains. "I am quite exhausted now."

With more leisure time finally stretching in front of her, a return to her beloved woodwork beckons as well as a holiday somewhere in Victoria. And before heading away from the terrace and the occasional thunder of a truck, she adds: "I just want to stress I am proud of the work the city does. It gets in your blood, Ballarat."

May 14: The report is tabled

May 16, 2020

May 18, 2020: Resignation and sacking

May 19: Mayor Ben Taylor talks about Justine Linley's sacking

May 21: Price fixing links of acting CEO confirmed

May 24: Fresh doubts published over recruitment processes/ Fall out continues over decision to terminate Justine Linley's CEO contract

May 28: Push for new interim CEO

June 10: New CEO announced

June 12: First day of new interim CEO, Janet Dore

June 18: Directors jobs to be re-advertised

June 29: Director of business services resigns

July 7: Director Cameron Cahill resigns

July 23: Changes to procurement

July 28: Another director goes

August 2: 'More than half way there'

August 11: Last director resigns

August 27: CEO recruitment begins

September 2: New appointments

September 10: New director of infrastructure and environment

September 11: Final director roles filled

September 17: Cultural review

January 6, 2021: Analysis and CEO appointment

January 26, 2021

January 30, 2021: Analysis

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