An extraordinary meeting of councillors late on Monday unanimously backed the reinstatement.
Mr Pretorius returned to the council offices at 9am yesterday to act as chief executive "for the next three or four months" or until a suitable candidate is recruited.
Mr Pretorius retired in March 2020, and was replaced by Mr Morris, who subsequently ordered a review that ended up changing the entire council management and resulted in a huge turnover of staff in the past three years.
Mayor Tania Gibson surprised those at the extraordinary meeting with the pace of the agreement, and had to change the motion from "to appoint an acting chief executive" to "appoint Mr Paul Pretorius as acting chief executive".
"We’re just really pleased to have someone with so much experience," she said.
Additionally, she was hoping for a successful recruitment process that would not be too drawn out, Mrs Gibson said.
Only last week the Buller District Council appointed Dunedin City Council manager Simon Pickford as its chief executive, from a pool of 74 applicants.
Mrs Gibson said she had been in contact with Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine and the recruitment agency.
"There seems to be some out there in the market which look really, really promising.
"The timeframe would depend on other commitments by any successful candidate, too. It normally takes three months and people have to give notice, so that’s the gauge on the timeline.
"At this stage in time the biggest priorities are our staff and our communities who we represent and the continuation of our annual [long-term plan] and big projects that we are working on.
"To have someone of such a high calibre as Paul who can step back in and be a steady hand to steer the ship through this recruitment period I think is the right thing to do, and I think we are very lucky to be able to have this option to keep business running as usual through the extensive work plan we have going."
By Meg Fulford
