Interim Chief Administrative Officer chosen

Council named Lionel Patrick Vincent as the city’s new interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) at the Dec. 4 council meeting.
“He’s very well versed in the Municipal Government Act so he that’s the experience he brings…he knows how to be a CAO, he knows the job…and we believe he has great leadership skills,” said Chestermere’s Mayor Marshal Chalmers.
Vincent will be taking over from Director of Corporate Services Tracy Buteau who has been filling in as the current interim CAO after Dr. Randy Patrick resigned from the role early last year.
Chalmers said that as he understands it, Buteau was asked by the previous council to step up and fulfill the role of interim CAO.
“Tracy did a good job,” said Chalmers.
With Buteau working as Interim CAO, her deputy director, Cathleen Peter-Swart had to move up to fill the role of Director of Corporate Services.
With the election of a brand-new council, the workload for both women has increased again from the already larger workload they had been handling in their interim roles.
“With a new council, it’s just getting to be too much so we needed to bring some relief in that area,” said Chalmers of the decision to hire Vincent as Interim CAO.
Buteau’s agreed to interim term expired in October and she expressed to council her desire to return to her usual role with the city.
“She did a great job and now it’s time to get them back to running their own departments,” said Chalmers.
In hiring an interim CAO, council was looking for someone with municipal CAO experience and experience in both budgeting and strategic planning, the two biggest files facing council in the coming weeks and months.
In choosing Vincent for the CAO role, council had several in depth discussion with him to make sure he had the needed experience and would be the right fit for the city.
After interviewing him, council felt that Vincent has the needed experience.
“We went out and found somebody that’s got substantial experience in budgeting, cause, of course that’s one of the things that we are going to tackle here right away,” said Chalmers.
“So, we felt he’d be a good fit to help our new council move forward at this time,” he said.
As council moves forward with their review of the 2018 budget and creation of their strategic plan, they will be continuing to look for a permanent full-time CAO.
Vincent starts with the city on Dec. 11, and is being put right to work helping council craft their strategic plan.
“We’re not going to give him any time to get his feet wet,” said Chalmers, “we go straight into strategic planning on…the day he starts or the day after he starts.”