Rocky View County’s (RVC) administration will be managed by a new chief administrative officer (CAO) as of Jan. 1.
Byron Riemann was appointed as acting CAO on Dec. 14 by RVC council, taking over from the previous acting CAO, Kent Robinson.
Riemann previously served as the municipality’s executive director of operations and has been with the county for more than 30 years, according to RVC Mayor Don Kochan. He added Riemann has stepped up as acting CAO in the past as well.
According to a statement from RVC on Dec. 15, council made the decision to balance senior leadership workloads within the County.
Robinson was in the acting position for just under ten months, while still fulfilling his duties as executive director of corporate services, Kochan explained.
“The CAO position is tough enough, never mind having to perform another senior leadership role as well,” Kochan said.
With the 2022 budget process upon them, council thought it would be fair to Robinson to have someone else take over the duties of acting CAO.
In the meantime, the recruitment of a new, permanent CAO is ongoing, and Kochan is hopeful a candidate will be in place by March.
“We have a fair number of applications and we're in the process right now of shortlisting up to about 10 qualified candidates. Council will look at those qualified candidates and possibly come up with five that we wish to interview,” Kochan said, adding that the interviewing process will start taking place in the middle of January..
The main concern of not having a permanent CAO in place right now is the workload being juggled by the County’s employees, according to Kochan. The new council also plans to strike up a new strategic plan and hope to get the new CAO in place to help them through that process.
“We're trying to develop a strategic plan that's going to take us over the four years of our term,” Kochan said. He added the new CAO will develop a business plan to support the strategic plan.
Under the Municipal Government Act (MGA), all Alberta municipalities must have a CAO, who serves as a council’s sole employee and head of administration. A council gives its direction to municipal staff through the direction of the CAO.
On behalf of council, Kochan thanked Robinson for his leadership and expertise. Robinson will remain in his other position as the municipality’s executive director of corporate services.
Following the resignation of the previous CAO, Al Hoggan, in April 2021, RVC announced Robinson would fill the role only four days later. This wasn’t the first time Robinson stepped up as acting CAO, as he also took on the position during the hiring process of Hoggan in 2018.
Hoggan provided three month’s notice to leave RVC’s top administrative employee on April 1, but council allowed him to leave early from his position.
