WESTLOCK – Westlock County’s search for its 16th CAO in the last 22 years has narrowed, as councillors have reviewed a handful of shortlisted candidates with interviews expected to begin in the next two weeks.
Reps from Leaders International, the firm tasked with finding a new CAO for the municipality, and county councillors went behind closed doors at the county’s April 12 meeting to discuss the current applicants and the process going forward. Former CAO Kay Spiess resigned March 7 after less than a year at the helm of the county.
Interim CAO Pat Vincent said Leaders received 19 applicants for the job and provided a shortlist of four — council in turn asked Leaders to investigate two who didn’t make the shortlist and provide more information.
“I’m expecting a call tomorrow and the shortlist could expand to five or six and there may some interviews slated for next week,” said Vincent April 21. “The process is moving forward fairly quickly. I would suspect that if we don’t get any interviews started next week it’ll be the first week of May and that pushes everything back a week or two. I was initially expecting a replacement in place by the first week of June, now it might be July 1.”
Vincent said he knows the four shortlisted candidates and says they’re all “‘A’ quality.” Vincent, who’s contract was extended once previously to April 30, is currently being paid $159 per hour, plus expenses like mileage, meals and hotel accommodations to serve as interim CAO.
“Council has some good candidates to interview and I think they may have a tough decision. It will come down to personality and styles and how they connect to council,” said Vincent.
“Certainly from the candidates I see on the list the future does look positive for Westlock County.”
While Spiess is the county’s ninth CAO since 2014, with Vincent and Rosemary Offrey, who headed council’s Feb. 8 meeting only, the next CAO hired will now be the municipality’s 12th in the last eight years and 16th since the turn of the century. Spiess went on an “unexpected” six-week leave following a four-hour-and-14-minute, councillors-only meeting Feb. 3.
Turnover at the top
In addition to at least eight interim CAOs like Rick McDonald, Vincent and assorted county senior admin, many who’ve served in the role multiple times, Westlock County’s seven permanent CAOs since the turn of the century are: Wyatt Glebe, Jim Squire, Edward LeBlanc, Peter Kelly, Duane Coleman, Leo Ludwig and Spiess.
The turnover has been especially pronounced in the last decade following the spring 2014 departure of LeBlanc, a 29-year county employee.
Kelly was hired in September 2014 and had no previous CAO experience at the time, but had been mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He left in early 2016 under a cloud of failed land dealings and other irregularities — his tenure was well-documented in the 2017 municipal inspection report. Coleman, who had previously led Lac La Biche County, was next up, but only stayed for three months before taking the CAO job in Leduc.
Ludwig was hired in September 2016 and stayed until 2020 with his final five months at the municipality spent on paid leave as his resignation was officially announced in September.
Spiess, a Sturgeon County native, came to Westlock County initially in the summer of 2020 as a consultant and stayed throughout the Budget 2021 process before being hired as CAO on April 1, 2021. The previous council conducted a six-month review of her contract Oct. 12, 2021, six days before the municipal election, while a formal review by the current council had been slated for March.
McDonald said previously that the constant turnover had negatively impacted workplace culture and morale at the municipality, while Spiess said in her initial interview with the Westlock News last April that, “The constant change in CAOs has been a massive problem here. It's one that’s created a lot of inconsistency.”
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