WESTLOCK – Westlock County councillors have extended the contract of interim CAO Pat Vincent until the end of June as the first three CAO candidates are slated to be interviewed next week.
At their April 26 meeting, councillors voted 7-0 to keep Vincent on the payroll until June 30, or until a new CAO is hired. Vincent, whose contract was previously extended at the March 8 meeting to April 30, is being paid $159 per hour, plus expenses like mileage, meals and hotel accommodations — costs for the interim CAO is budgeted under contracted services. Former CAO Kay Spiess went on an “unexpected” six-week leave following a four-hour-and-14-minute, councillors-only meeting Feb. 3 and officially resigned March 7 after less than a year at the helm.
“If it happens sooner, my contract will be terminated at that point as the new CAO will be in place,” said Vincent, whose current tenure started Feb. 9.
Reps from Leaders International, the firm tasked with finding a new CAO for the municipality, and county councillors went behind closed doors at the municipality’s April 12 meeting to discuss the current applicants and the process going forward — since Spiess resigned after less than a year on the job, Leaders will not be charging its standard recruitment fee which Vincent says would have been upwards of $30,000.
“They have an 18-month guarantee, so if there’s good news in this dark cloud that’s hung over the county for the last little while, they will be doing the recruitment at no cost,” said Vincent previously. “The standard fee by any of the firms who are well known and used by municipalities in the province is 25 per cent of whatever the salary is for the CAO coming in.”
Vincent said Leaders received 19 applicants and provided a shortlist of four, while councillors in turn asked Leaders to investigate two who didn’t make the shortlist and provide more info.
Vincent said April 28 that five candidates will be interviewed — three will be quizzed following the county’s May 10 meeting, while two will meet with council following the May 17 governance and priorities meeting.
Counting Vincent and Rosemary Offrey, who headed the Feb. 8 council meeting only, the next CAO will be the municipality’s 12th in the last eight years and 16th since 2000.
In addition to at least eight interim CAOs like Rick McDonald and Vincent, who served in the same role in the summer of 2016, plus assorted county senior admin, Westlock County’s seven permanent CAOs since the turn of the century in order are: Wyatt Glebe, Jim Squire, Edward LeBlanc, Peter Kelly, Duane Coleman, Leo Ludwig and Spiess.
