WESTLOCK – Westlock County councillors have given unanimous consent to their top two politicians to go forward with the legal advice the municipality asked for following a four-hour, council-only meeting in early February — a meeting followed 24 hours later by CAO Kay Spiess taking an “unexpected” six-week leave.
Councillors went in-camera briefly at their Feb. 22 meeting to discuss a personnel matter and when they emerged voted 7-0 to pass a resolution to direct the reeve and deputy reeve to proceed pursuant to the legal advice that had been requested back on Feb. 3. Reeve Christine Wiese said she and deputy reeve Ray Marquette have not yet followed up on that advice but she expects that to happen soon.
“We have not done it yet. I still have to talk to the deputy reeve today to go forward with what council decided,” said Wiese Feb. 24. “I’m hoping this is done before the next meeting. We have to reach out to a third party and when you have to reach out to a third party, who knows. It’s out of our control at that point.”
How we got here
At the conclusion of a four-hour-and-14-minute meeting Feb. 3 — a gathering that Spiess and community services coordinator Adrienne Finnegan attended but exited after only three minutes — a motion made by Coun. Jared Stitsen and passed by council directed the reeve to get a legal opinion on in-camera item 9.1.
Wiese, who hasn’t specifically said what the legal opinion was about, or why it was needed, said the meeting was originally called to get council “more focused” and “get in a better direction because we’re all over the place.” Spiess, who started with the county in April 2021, began her six-week leave the day after the meeting.
As to whether Spiess will return, Wiese previously stated that she’s been provided a return-to-work date of March 18 — the Westlock News reached out to Spiess Feb. 8, the municipality’s 10th CAO in the last eight years, but has not received a reply.
The previous council conducted a six-month review of Spiess’ contract Oct. 12, six days before the municipal election, while a formal review of the CAO by the current council is slated for March.
Spiess replaced Leo Ludwig who led the county from 2016 to 2020 — Ludwig’s final five months at the municipality were spent on paid leave and his resignation was officially announced in September that year. Until Spiess was hired, Rick McDonald served as interim CAO, the second time he had filled the position for the municipality.
McDonald said previously that the constant turnover had negatively impacted workplace culture and morale at the county, while Spiess said in her initial interview with the News in April 2021 that, “The constant change in CAOs has been a massive problem here. It's one that’s created a lot of inconsistency.”
What’s been happening since
Since Feb. 9, Pat Vincent has been acting as interim CAO, a position he previously held in the summer of 2016 when he served as interim CAO between the tenures of Duane Coleman and Ludwig. Rosemary Offrey, who’s previously served as CAO for the Town of Rainbow Lake and manager of corporate services for the MD of Greenview, acted as interim CAO for the Feb. 8 council meeting
Vincent counts 46 years of municipal government experience and most recently served as CAO of Parkland County from August 2007 until he officially retired Jan. 1, 2015 — in the years since he has taken on other interim CAO postings. He is currently being paid $159 per hour, plus expenses like mileage, meals and hotel accommodations as he’s staying at the Westlock Inn during the work week.
Wiese gave kudos to Vincent for stepping in on short notice, saying many staffers remember him from his time with the municipality in 2016.
“I’ve been hearing good things. And I think it helps that he’s been here previously. A lot of the staff know him and his style,” said Wiese. “He’s very knowledgeable and we’re pretty fortunate to have him in step in.”
