Ken Gwozdz is no longer employed as chief administrative officer of the Village of Boyle.
Boyle Mayor Don Radmanovich confirmed Gwozdz’s departure Friday.
“He’s no longer working in the village, it’s a personnel matter,” said Radmanovich.
Radmanovich did not say whether Gwozdz had been let go by the village or resigned of his own accord.
Councillors David Bencharsky and Sam Assaf both declined to comment on Gwozdz’s departure. Bencharsky said it was standard policy not to comment on personnel matters.
Earlier last week, deputy mayor Mike Antal said he understood that Gwozdz had been away from the village office due to illness. He could not be reached for further comment after Radmanovich confirmed Gwozdz’s departure.
Neither Gwozdz nor councillor Roger Hall could be reached for comment.
Gwozdz, who had been with the Village of Boyle since December of 2006, came under fire last March when a Municipal Inspection Report ordered by Alberta Municipal Affairs was critical of the village’s operations and recommended that Gwozdz’s employment be terminated.
However, the previous village council defended Gwozdz and said his firing wasn’t warranted.
“That was a recommendation by the inspector and we got a legal opinion on it, and the legal opinion felt that there wasn’t enough meat in the inspector’s report to warrant it,” former Mayor Bob Clark said last March.
“Notwithstanding the fact that the CAO has done a lot of good things, even though it showed (in the report) that he made some errors in judgment … along with the legal opinion, we felt that it just wasn’t warranted.”
Both Clark and deputy mayor Jim Giancola were defeated in the Oct. 18 municipal election. The top vote getter in that election was Bencharsky, who campaigned specifically on the recommendations within the Municipal Inspection Report.
