By Stephen Vance, Editor
If history is any indication, we have just entered the window of time when Meaford’s CAO is likely to say goodbye and head off to greener pastures. To be clear, there are no rumours that our CAO is planning to leave, there have been no rumblings, no whispers, I’m just talking about history – and not just in Meaford.
Our current CAO has been with the Municipality for three years now. From the research I’ve done over the years, municipal CAOs in Ontario seem to stay with a municipality for three to five years before heading off to their next municipality where they will collect a larger pay-cheque than they had been receiving from their previous employer. Loyalty is not part of the CAO culture. Longevity is just a myth they have read about.
The cynic in me has thought that the three to five year window is part of an elaborate game played by those in the CAO business. A game where they all agree to not spend a career at one municipality, but rather to move on to the next municipality within three to five years, and in doing so, with each move the salary for CAOs increases. One CAO leaves a municipality, and the next CAO wants more money than the last, and the CAO that has left, will earn more at their new municipality than the previous CAO.
But let’s leave my cynical side at the door for today.
If and when our current CAO resigns, I would suggest to our council that they don’t scramble to find a replacement, but instead consider not replacing her at all.
In the years that I have been covering Meaford’s council I have become more and more convinced that of all the staff positions, the position of CAO brings the least value, at the greatest expense, and while it is a position that might be useful in a larger municipalities like Kitchener or Guelph, for a small town like Meaford, having a CAO is somewhat akin to brick walls on an outhouse – it might look a little better, but it doesn’t improve or expand the basic functions of an outhouse.
There is no legal reason for employing a CAO. The Municipal act doesn’t require a municipality to employ a CAO, and in fact it only specifies that a municipality must have a Clerk and a Treasurer – and Meaford has a qualified and capable Clerk and Treasurer.
And while I have no complaints about the person currently in the role of CAO for Meaford, the, I’ve come to believe that the position itself is somewhat toxic – particularly for small towns. You see, not only do the salaries for CAOs continue to rise with each CAO departure from one municipality, and the hiring at the next, the salaries of senior staff have to be impacted. Let’s face it, if the current CAO is earning $151,000 per year, it makes it tough to try and hire a senior manager for $75,000.
Want proof? When I started covering Meaford council in 2009 – incidentally, when I started covering council in 2009 we didn’t have a CAO then either, and hadn’t for nearly two years – there were no Meaford staff members on the annual Sunshine list of public sector workers in Ontario who earn more than $100,000 per year. Last year Meaford had six staff members on the list. In six short years we’ve gone from having no municipal employees – not even a CAO or any senior managers earning $100,000 per year to six. I have to think that if we didn’t have a CAO who now earns more than $151,000, we wouldn’t have six municipal employees on the Sunshine list.
We’ve already proven that we don’t actually need a CAO.
When former CAO Frank Miele – who incidentally was earning roughly $118,000 when he left for greener pastures in February of 2012, Meaford went six months – half a year – without the services of a CAO. What was done instead? The senior managers of the municipality rotated as “team leaders” monthly until the new CAO – who incidentally earned $151,000 last year – arrived on August 13 of 2012.
For six whole months Meaford had no CAO, and the municipality didn’t fall apart, the ground didn’t crumble beneath our feet, and council didn’t spontaneously combust due to not having a CAO to boss them around.
So when our current CAO – who is a fine person, and does a fine job in a position that I don’t think we need – finds that greener pasture I urge council to consider following some other municipalities that have decided that they no longer require the services of a CAO.
We have a qualified, and capable senior staff, when the current CAO says goodbye, I suggest that Meaford say goodbye to the position of CAO.
