After spending $14,000 to find a new chief administrative officer, the leading candidate has decided not to accept the Town of Athabasca's offer. On Nov.
After spending $14,000 to find a new chief administrative officer, the leading candidate has decided not to accept the Town of Athabasca's offer.
On Nov. 14, councillors were informed that Joe Day turned down the $120,000 per year offer council extended two weeks ago, leaving Athabasca without a permanent replacement for the position.
The development is disappointing to Councillors Joanne Peckham and Tanu Evans, who said they felt Day would have accepted the town's offer after some quick negotiation.
“Because of council's inability to act as a group or get together to form a cohesive union in order to hire somebody for the benefit of the town, certain members chose to delay, ” Evans said. “Which resulted in a second offer not being offered to Joe Day, and I guess he's found other employment. ”
According to emails obtained by the Athabasca Advocate, after making the initial offer, the town received communication on Nov 4. that Day would accept the CAO position, but with some changes to the offer.
“We were warned by the consultant not to sit on this, ” said Coun. Joanne Peckham.
Peckham said she, along with Councillors Nichole Adams, Shelly Gurba and Evans, informed Mayor Roger Morrill that they wanted to hold an immediate special meeting of council to discuss an appropriate counter offer.
“Four of us immediately notified our mayor that we were available as soon as possible for meeting and suggested either the 7th or the 8th, and we were denied having that meeting, ” Peckham said.
A special meeting was scheduled instead for Nov. 15 at 5:15 p.m.
Both Evans and Peckham believe the delayed negotiations were key to missing out on Day.
“It affected it gravely, ” Peckham said.
Coun. Tim Verhaeghe said he still would not mention names of candidates as he still treats the offer as an in-camera discussion.
He also agreed that because the Town of Athabasca made their proposal public, another municipality could have used the information to change their offer or put the competitiveness of the town at risk.
“It could have been used as a negotiation tactic, ” he said. “Could have been. That's an assumption. But ultimately, the candidate did what he decided to do for his or her own reasons, and that was up to the candidate. So it's got nothing to do with what the Town of Athabasca did do or didn't do. The decision was with the candidate. ”
Council will meet on Nov. 15 to discuss how to move forward with the CAO search.
Verhaeghe noted that the town could choose from other candidates on the list, or conduct another search to find more candidates, perhaps with different terms. He also said council could choose to keep interim CAO Doug Topinka on contract until a new council is elected next October.
A new search will cost more money, and the consulting firm has also indicated to council that it will not be able to start the process again until the new year.
“The big problem here is that the $14,000 we extended to a headhunter is completely wasted now, ” Evans said.
Verhaeghe said he would support conducting another search in the new year, including in the job description what the town would be willing to pay for a CAO.
“I think we should advertise again, say what we're willing to pay, ” he said. “If what we're willing to pay is what we've traditionally paid or historically paid, then we may not get as many candidates. If we decide to up what we're willing to pay, we might get a whole bunch more candidates. ”
In the meantime, Doug Topinka is likely to continue as interim CAO until council can make a permanent hire. Topinka is currently being paid $100 per hour up to 40 hours per week, and is not approved to work overtime without permission of council.
“Doug is just interim, so I don't think he's ready to move boulders and shake rocks, and that's perfectly acceptable because he is an interim CAO helping out the town and I do thank Mr. Topinka for that, ” Evans said. “I'm just extremely disappointed that the mayor chose to play partisan politics with this. ”
Morrill said he had no comment on the issue.
“There is a current process in place, so I think we should stick to the process that was there, ” he said.
The special meeting is still set go ahead at 5:15 p.m. this evening, Nov. 15. The regular town council meeting is scheduled to follow at 6 p.m.
For more on the story, pick up next week's edition of the Athabasca Advocate.
- With files from Allendria Brunjes
