Dear Editor,
At first, Mike Robertson’s letter suggesting the use of an outside ‘head hunter’ for the CAO position made me cringe, only because of Meaford’s history of hiring consultants for everything more costly than buying lunch. But realistically, the idea is a good one, and he makes a good argument for it.
Meaford’s history of hiring CAOs is hardly a success story, and the results of the past decade or so of the CAO position will surely not have people lining up for the job. If we’re going to hire another CAO (a couple of councillors have told me it isn’t a mandatory municipal position), I’d like to suggest an important change to the job description. At some point in history, as you mention frequently, the CAO was given strong powers. Council is not allowed to speak directly to any municipal employee, and too many important decisions are the CAO’s to make, not council, possibly the reason why our staff is so much larger than other similar municipalities, without results to show. The only member of staff that is obligated to answer to council is the CAO.
It seems reasonable to ask a CAO to deal with administrative issues, but as history shows, major problems within the municipal management teams can go unchallenged for years, no matter how many councillors and taxpayers are displeased, because if the CAO chooses to ignore the problem, nobody else is ‘permitted’ to deal with the issue.
We elected a council, but we didn’t elect a staff, a group which has too many members that demonstrate regularly that they really don’t care how displeased their employers (the taxpayers) are. Our corporate structure chart, that which supposedly doesn’t exist but many of us have seen, show mayor and council on the top rung of the municipal ladder, followed by CAO, then clerk, then department heads, but the ‘chain of command’ as practised never follows this policy.
The next CAO should be on a much shorter leash, and council should be able and willing to override their authority if it’s deemed necessary. As it is, the elected representatives of the taxpayers have been hobbled by the very staff they employ. The cart has been driving the horse far too long.
Bill Cameron, Bognor
