The Town of Athabasca’s council is at a stalemate in the hiring of a new chief administrative officer.
The public portion of the Jan. 10 administrative committee meeting ended 15 minutes after starting, when Coun. Tanu Evans told the committee chair Coun. Shelly Gurba that she may as well contact the four candidates currently being considered for the job, and tell them the hiring process was unsuccessful, “Due to council’s complete and utter incompetence, and lack of leadership from our mayor.”
After the meeting, Gurba said she did speak with the candidates later that evening and told them council would try one more time to come to a consensus on the hiring of a new CAO at the regular council meeting set for Jan. 17.
Gurba also resigned from being chair of the administration committee following the meeting.
Tension spiked when Coun. Steven Schafer said his suggestion from the last meeting still stands, to reintroduce a candidate that was previously interviewed for the job and rejected by the majority of council. Evans said the hiring consultant council used in the first round of interviews deemed the individual Schafer suggested was unfit to act as CAO for the Town of Athabasca.
Mayor Roger Morrill said he agrees with Schafer, and sees potential in three people, two of which are from previous hiring rounds. The current round is the third since November.
Evans and Coun. Joanne Peckham said they would not support adding any prior applicants to the current pool of applicants.
“My understanding was that we were going to move forward and not bring up the past,” Peckham said.
Schafer said if council is beginning interviews again, why not include candidates that rose to the top of the first and second round.
“That is not uncommon and I just fail to understand the resistance to that idea,” he said.
Evans proceeded to grill Schafer on the definition of a successful interview, and Schafer admitted council would have to come to consensus on the right candidate.
Evans said no position was offered to the individual after the successful candidate turned down the job because four councillors voted not to give the candidate a second interview.
“Inviting him up would not only be insulting to him, it would be completely and utterly meaningless, as he cannot succeed in the interview process, as he has failed before, and three councillors around this table in a deadlock council are not willing to change their mind with that,” Evans said.
Morrill interjected that the intent of the meeting was to try and develop consensus, and if that is not easily attained, “I think to go forward might be folly.”
“If we keep sitting on our butts and not taking action on this, we are going to be stuck without a CAO,” Gurba said, as interim CAO Doug Topinka plans to leave in the spring.
Council then went in-camera for an additional item on the agenda.
About 10 minutes into the session, Coun. Tim Verhaeghe, Schafer and Morrill walked out, breaking quorum and ending the meeting.
