WESTLOCK — Westlock County held interviews with three candidates for the CAO job last Friday.
Earlier in the week, at a Feb. 9 meeting, councillors also agreed to set an expiration date of Feb. 26 on the contract with the current interim CAO Rick McDonald.
Reeve Jared Stitsen told the Westlock News Feb. 11 this doesn’t mean they’ll have a CAO by then, although they hope interviews go well. They’ll go over the interviews during the Feb. 16 governance and priorities meeting, likely in-camera.
“That was the end of the term with Rick. We had 15 days before the end of the contract, we needed to make a decision on what we were doing. As of now, the 26th will be his last day,” Stitsen said.
The end for McDonald’s interim tenure is also not final. If a new CAO won’t start by then, they have the option to extend McDonald’s tenure or temporarily promote from within.
In May, McDonald started on a three-month contract that was only supposed to cover then-CAO Leo Ludwig’s health-related leave period. Ludwig resigned WHEN and McDonald stayed with the county.
When the hiring process started, Stitsen said they were hoping to have a new CAO by January.
“It’s been a challenge with interviews and COVID going on. Which direction we go on Friday is going to determine the timeline,” Stitsen said.
