Council votes against appointing Mayor to CAO Succession Planning Committee

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Town council made a bold statement during the regular council meeting on July 22, when they unanimously voted against appointing Mayor Michael Ell to the newly proposed CAO Succession Planning Committee.
The ad hoc committee, an initiative to deal with the current chie=f administrative officer’s retirement announcement, will serve to gather relevant information for the hire of a new CAO.
While Mayor Ell, who was absent at last week’s meeting, requested consideration to be appointed as one of two members from the council to form the committee, all five councillors voted in opposition of the request.
“I’m disappointed, but council gets to make that decision as a group, and that was the decision of council,” said Mayor Ell. “I think it’s very important that we do our ultimate best to attract the right person to that position in the future, and the decision has been made and the people that have been chosen will have my support where I can support them.”
Shortly after the vote, Councillor Bob Sobol and Councillor Denise Peterson were elected to fill the positions, with Councillor Steve Grajczyk serving as an alternate.
According to the mandate, the council members will determine where to advertise, gather the necessary information for the hire of the new employee, put forth plausible candidates for council approval, and draft and present a CAO job description for council approval.
“The reason that council is getting involved in this – because council do not get involved in operations at all – is because the CAO is the only employee of council,” said Deputy CAO Linda Nelson. “That is their role and responsibility to do that. They would recruit and make a decision.”
The successful candidate will work on behalf of council to offer council advice and make recommendations. The committee will remain active until the position is filled.
Chief Administrative Officer Dwight Stanford, who served in his position for the past 23 years, will be retiring early next year.