WESTLOCK — A month after Westlock County held interviews for the top administrative job, an offer was sent to a new CAO hire who is expected to start April 1.
Councillors moved March 9 to extend the interim CAO, Laurie Strutt’s contract until March 31 and to accept the amended offer and conditions of employment for the incoming CAO.
The county has been searching for a CAO since Leo Ludwig officially announced his resignation in September, and eventually interviewed three people in February.
No details are yet available publicly about the conditions or the new CAO, who will be the county’s 10th in seven years — including Strutt’s brief tenure.
Budget 2021 highlighted the county’s need to address workplace culture issues that stem from so many changes in the leadership structure.
“Leadership issued have had widespread consequences for staff wellbeing and engagement and the success of County programs,” the document reads.
“Administration recognizes the need to repair the culture and bring direction, trust and support to staff. Efforts to improve workplace culture are underway and will continue for long-term progress.”
The success of those long-term initiatives largely depends on the new CAO. Rick McDonald, who filled in since May after Ludwig’s health leave and final departure, said he changed the organizational structure from a top-down model to what resembled a congress of directors.
McDonald, whose initial contract was signed for three months, stayed in the interim job for ten months. It wasn’t his first stint in Westlock County — he held the same job in 2014, when the county was in between CAOs.
With McDonald at the helm, the county also began moving closer to its neighbours, and the eventual set up of a regional economic development partnership that includes two large grant applications for shared services.
His last day was Feb. 26, and Strutt, the county’s director of planning and community services, took over.
