The Town of Athabasca’s council officially re-hired former chief administrative officer Doug Topinka to serve on an interim basis until someone else fills the position.
At a regular meeting Oct. 4, council voted for Topinka to take on the role. Coun. Tim Verhaeghe made the motion to accept the interim CAO contract; Mayor Roger Morrill and Councillors Steve Schafer and Shelly Gurba supported the motion. Coun. Tanu Evans opposed.
Council decided that Topinka would work a maximum of 40 hours a week unless council approved more hours, and there would be no overtime pay as it is a contract.
“We’ve been without a CAO for a while, and actually I’m just getting into them (the books) now to see where we’re at,” Topinka said in an interview after the meeting.
He also noted that the town hired a new ledger clerk on Monday, meaning there are now four people out of the full complement of six – not including the CAO – working at the town office.
Topinka has occasionally worked on a contract basis since his retirement, for the town as well as for Lac La Biche County.
“So far, so good,” Topinka said. “It’s a matter of getting back into the flow of things. Like, it was four years ago that I retired, so things have changed. And it’s getting the new processes, et cetera, underway.”
The new contract was unavailable to the public before deadline. Topinka said he would only give the Advocate a copy after it was signed, which had not happened by Friday, according to town staff.
Former interim CAO Warren Zyla said he had hired Topinka as the town’s “financial consultant” on Sept. 26. Multiple sources confirmed that Topinka was earning $100 an hour in that position.
Topinka is the town’s former CAO. He retired in July 2012 after working with the town for more than a decade.
The 2013 Municipal Corporate Review of the town – conducted by Municipal Affairs – states that reviewers heard that Topinka “received a large vacation entitlement payment from the town due to outstanding vacation entitlement which caused discord in the community” due to a lack of policy.
In March, former town CAO Josh Pyrcz, reading from the town’s audited financial statements, said that in the 2012 the town paid $500,991 to its CAOs. In addition to regular salary to Topinka and former CAO Ryan Maier, that sum also included a Topinka’s retirement payout, around which there was a confidentiality agreement signed by both parties.
Zyla – who is also the town’s parks foreman – was set to resign from his role as interim CAO on or before Oct. 7. His official resignation came at midnight Oct. 5.
“We’re coming up to budget time and year-end, and we need somebody who is qualified to deal with those things,” Zyla said in an interview Sept. 23.
“It’s actually been a really good experience,” he added. “I’ve learned a lot. It’s interesting. It’s a totally different world than I’m used to.”
