City inches closer to hiring new CAO

By COLLIN GALLANT on December 7, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

City Hall may have a new top administrator very soon, the News has learned.

Monday’s meeting of council featured long discussion about how some provisions in the proposed 2023 and 2024 budget should be paused until a permanent city manager is in place, but the meeting was also adjourned at an unusually early hour of 10 p.m.

That, sources say, was to allow councillors to prepare and return for early morning interviews at city hall toward finding the new chief administrative officer.

During the meeting, councillors debated holding off on hiring about 11 new positions in the parks, human resources and the permitting staff, and letting the new city manager evaluate needs.

“We are so close to hiring a city manager,” Coun. Shila Sharps said during the meeting, which later she argued needed to be adjourned to allow council members more time generally to perform their duties.

Communications staff told the News that Tuesday was slated to discuss a personnel matter, but Mayor Linnsie Clark later confirmed that final CAO interviews were scheduled for early that day.

Sharps heads the council employee relations committee, which has spearheaded the hiring, though she said all council members were welcome to attend the process.

This fall both interim city manager Glenn Fletham and Clark told the News they hoped the position would be filled by the end of 2022. Considering the stature of the position, and likely possibility the successful candidate would be employed elsewhere, it may take some time to make the transition.

The role has been handled by Feltham, a former post-secondary administrator, since the spring after former city CAO Merete Heggelund briefly took the job but left without extending her three-month contract.

Previous city manager Bob Nicolay left the position in January 2022, citing retirement plans but also saying that after a long process to pass budget amendments he felt it was clear that an “organizational refresh” was required.

Municipal elections in late 2021 produced a nine-person council with seven new members.

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