WESTLOCK – New Westlock County CAO Tony Kulbisky is promising more communication with ratepayers and wants to ensure the county remains “open for opportunity” adding that the creation of a strategic plan to guide the municipality into the future is at the top of his to-do list.
Kulbisky, whose six-year contract to head the municipality started Aug. 2, has been going over recent files and council decisions and “getting up to speed on some of the bigger files as quickly as I can.” Kulbisky, who will be the eighth permanent CAO to head the county since the turn of the century, is being paid $190,000 annually and counts decades of municipal government experience, plus 15 years as a CAO including the last 13 at the helm of the Town of Devon.
“I’ve also been trying to get to know as many of the staff as possible and see what makes the organization tick and then look for gaps in certain areas to see if we can make improvements to provide better service to the community at large,” he said in a one-on-one interview Aug. 17.
The biggest focus with council will be crafting a strategic plan with Kulbisky trying to lock down a few days in September for those discussions. Kulbisky says “council is keen on doing it as it sets the direction for where they want to go and then we implement that direction and show the community the results.”
“One of the comments I made to council is that they’re over the halfway period of their first year in their first term. So, if I was to ask them what was the one thing that they wanted to get accomplished in the remainder of this calendar year I bet I would get seven different answers,” he said.
“The idea is to get everybody on the same page. So, if the strat planning exercise is the big one, that will then lead into the budget prep for operating and capital into next year and that will give us some solid pavement running forward and then we can get some things accomplished.
“Right now, it’s kind of like you’re getting seven different opinions on where we need to go and we all need to be on the same page, on the same team. I mean most councils across Alberta want the same thing — taxes low and high service levels. So, the challenge is how to make it affordable and even find different ways of providing those services.”
Going forward communicating with ratepayers will also be key, said Kulbisky, and “to expect some improvements.” While traditional media like the newspaper and their website, as well as older social-media platforms like Facebook remain the No. 1 avenues, he says the county needs to look at engaging younger residents.
“We want to provide some focus to our communications and will be looking at every avenue. That could range from things like Twitter, to a dedicated app, or even Snapchat. We want to try and get every demographic in our community to know what’s going on at the county,” he said.
In addition to at least eight interim CAOs like Rick McDonald and Pat Vincent, who filled the role from Feb. 10 to Aug. 3, plus assorted senior county admin, the seven permanent CAOs since the turn of the century are: Wyatt Glebe, Jim Squire, Edward LeBlanc, Peter Kelly, Duane Coleman, Leo Ludwig and Kay Spiess, who tendered her resignation March 7 after less than a year at the helm and is now the CAO of Beaver County.
