Brisbane City Council's CEO offered another four years

The most powerful unelected man in Brisbane City Council has been offered a new four-year contract.

The council's chief executive officer, Colin Jensen, joined Australia's largest council in August 2010, seeing the city through the 2011 floods and now through the coronavirus crisis.

At Tuesday's council meeting, a motion was put forward by the LNP administration to approve the renewal of his contract, due to expire in August, for another four years.

A former state government department director-general and senior executive of several other infrastructure companies and organisations, Mr Jensen's background is in engineering.

After his efforts during the 2011 floods, Mr Jensen was recognised with a national award for his role.

He is also believed to be one of the best-paid public servants in the city, with council's annual report for 2018-2019 detailing only one employee in the $700,000-799,000 pay bracket.

Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner told the council that, with Mr Jensen's contract coming up for renewal, he approached Mr Jensen and asked him to stay on for another four years.

Cr Schrinner said the council was being asked to determine if Mr Jensen was "suitable" to remain as chief executive, and if so, negotiations for his contract would begin.

"I think it goes without saying that Colin is absolutely suitable to be CEO of council," Cr Schrinner said, describing Mr Jensen as a "true professional public servant of the highest order" with the respect of all sides of the political fence.

"I asked Colin Jensen whether he would stay on as council's CEO because that was very much my desire to continue working with him ... and he kindly agreed."

Cr Schrinner said the new contract would have no executive bonus, after previously announcing the administration would scrap the council's executive bonus scheme.

He also noted there would be no pay rises for the next two years, for Mr Jensen and all council staff.

Opposition leader Jared Cassidy questioned the lack of detail in the council documents about the proposed contract renewal for Mr Jensen.

"It's a very important role and I accept absolutely that Mr Jensen is a qualified person to do the role," Cr Cassidy said.

"But I think what we need to be focused on here is the process we're going through to get to a position where the CEO of the largest council in Australia is being offered a four-year term without any information."

Independent councillor Nicole Johnston, a vocal critic of Mr Jensen, attempted to amend the motion to return Mr Jensen's negotiated contract to council for final approval.

That motion, supported by Labor councillors, was lost.