There is no projected financial impact on constituents for Chatham-Kent’s new Deputy CAO position.
A motion brought forth by Ward 6 Councillor Alysson Storey at the January 13 council meeting asked for transparency with the hiring of a new Deputy Chief Administration Officer (CAO) for the municipality.
The position was posted on the Municipality of Chatham-Kent careers page back on January 8 with an application deadline of January 31.
Storey told CKXS News earlier this month that the position was originally discussed in a closed session, and one concern that wasn’t made transparent is where the funding would be coming from. The position’s salary is listed between $196,476 – $240,957.
At the January 27 council meeting, CAO Michael Duben responded to the motion explaining the funding wouldn’t result in the municipality going over budget.
“While it is being referred to as a new position, I anticipate one of our general managers will be retiring,” Duben explained. “The deputy CAO would be paid the same amount of money as our general managers are. So when one retires, and I anticipate that will be fairly soon, those salary dollars would go to pay for that deputy CAO.”
Duben told council hiring a deputy CAO would have a positive impact on the Chatham-Kent tax base as he would be eliminating the Manager of Strategic Initiative position in the CAO’s office.
The second part of Storey’s motion called for council to be involved in the hiring of the Deputy CAO, as they are involved in the hiring of the CAO. Currently, only the CAO has the ability to hire general managers and other executive management team members (EMT).
“I was very clear in close session, and I will say this publicly, Councillor Storey was not in closed session,” said Duben. “But in closed session, I didn’t ask for council’s approval because it’s not my understanding that I require council approval. If we needed more money, then yes that requires council approval. If we were hiring another CAO then absolutely… that’s a decision of council. But hiring someone who is a deputy CAO or quite frankly a manager/CAO is a member of the EMT.”
While the title of deputy CAO can be an assumed successor for Duben, the CAO stressed that, despite the title, it doesn’t necessarily mean an automatic promotion to CAO once he steps down.
Duben explained that hiring an individual he could work closely with would be beneficial in the long run and provide council with a trained potential candidate to consider hiring for the CAO role in the future.
In the end, voting was split into four separate items that the administration would report back to council at a later date.
Administration coming back with a job description for the deputy CAO passed 6 to 5. Councillor B. McGregor, Councillor Crew, Councillor Finn, Mayor Canniff, and Councillor Thompson all voted against it. Councillors Allin, Anderson, C. McGregor, Hall, Harrigan, McGrail, and Wright were absent.
Motions calling for financial analysis and comparisons to other Ontario municipalities on whether or not they have deputy CAOs both failed 4 to 7. Councillor Bondy, Councillor Doyle, Councillor Jubenville, and Councillor Storey all voted in favour.
