WESTLOCK — Jared Stitsen will serve as the new Westlock County reeve for the last year of council’s four-year term.
Stitsen was one of three nominees for the position at the Oct. 27 organizational meeting. The majority vote went in his favour with a minority to former reeve Lou Hall. Deputy reeve Brian Coleman — who will retain his position — declined his nomination.
“On behalf of all of council, I want to thank you, reeve Hall, for stepping up. We were all starting as new councillors and it was a huge role to take on at that time,” said Stitsen. Of the seven councillors, only Coun. Dennis Primeau was an incumbent after the 2017 election.
In a separate interview with the Westlock News Oct. 29, Stitsen added: “This is our final year here and we have a great interim CAO here, we’ve made leaps and bounds here in the last little while. We’re excited about some of the things coming forward. Sometimes there’s a lot of negative stuff, our budget and the provincial funding cuts, but we’re actually excited. We’ve been waiting a while to accomplish some tasks and it seems like now, in the last little while, we’ve seen more tasks, more projects that we’ve been rooting for, they’ve come to completion.
“It’s a great time to be in council, it’s a great time to be the reeve.”
“I think you’d be very good … there’s no question in my mind. It’s just the time thing that you don’t realize until you’re in there,” Hall told Stitsen at the meeting.
She said “it’s unknown” whether she’ll run in the next election. “I think that’s an important consideration,” said Coun. Victor Julyan, who also pointed out before the vote that Stitsen works full-time.
“Thank you, council, for the opportunity to do this job. … It’s been great working with you, I’m looking forward to being a regular councillor again and watching things progress,” said Hall after she lost the vote.
Responsibilities
McDonald explained the reeve’s duties involve organizing and chairing meetings, attending other related meetings, signature authority, and acting as spokesperson for council to media and government.
“The relationship between the reeve and the CAO is important. It’s a relationship that drives a lot of the agenda based on what the administration is doing to implement council policies. And so the reeve meets regularly with the CAO to be caught up,” he said.
Coun. Primeau brought up media-related duties, and that the reeve has to express the will of council and not personal opinion.
“If the reeve wants to take it personal, they must state ‘This is my personal opinion,’” he said.
McDonald agreed but further explained that councillors are not “handcuffed” from expressing personal opinion but they have to accept a council resolution as the official position.
“I’ve worked in municipalities where councillors are interviewed by the media after a meeting and they will say ‘This is my personal opinion. Here’s why I voted for or here’s why I voted against, here’s what I was thinking. However, council has made a decision and I will honour that,’” he said.
“And I think that is healthy and people need to hear about what you’re thinking.”
