These days, the first thing most people do when hiring a new employee is put their name into an Internet search engine.
Westlock County council apparently didn’t do that when hiring a new CAO, or even thoroughly review the documentation provided by their contracted recruiting firm. If they had, they might have had some knowledge of Peter Kelly’s involvement in past financial scandals during his tenure as mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Reeve Bud Massey’s explanation that they didn’t look too closely at the documents the recruiter provided and that council didn’t pursue it in depth at best shows a lack of judgment and at worst shows complete negligence in fulfilling their roles as representatives of Westlock County residents and guardians of that organization’s purse strings.
Council is tasked with employing one person to manage the entire organization. Perhaps in their haste to hire a replacement for interim CAO Rick McDonald, with whom council had an obviously acrimonious relationship, they didn’t feel the need to properly do their homework.
It’s embarrassing, to say the least, and councillors will doubtless face some tough questions from their bosses as a result of this hire. If you read the comments online and listen to the scuttlebutt around town, calls for resignations are already coming in.
Kelly may not have violated any laws for his role in the “cash-for-concerts” scandal, in which he helped provide secret loans to a concert promoter, but it certainly shows a lack of common sense. If you’re going to make the already questionable decision to use public money to bail out a private company, it should at the very least be done by motion of council.
It makes a lot more sense now why he wanted his identity was kept a secret until Sept. 2, when he was formally appointed to the position.
Kelly might, in fact, turn out to be the best CAO this county has ever had. Only time will tell. And after 27 years in politics you’re bound to be subject of a scandal or two, and maybe there were a few isolated incidents in an otherwise stellar political career. Only Haligonians can say for sure.
One way or the other there are bound to be a lot of county residents unhappy about the whole situation, and council will have to answer to them.
