North Cowichan too dysfunction for any good CAO
Re: “Ruttan right?” (May 26, Citizen)
The quick and blunt answer to your question regarding Mr. Ruttan as CAO is “no”.
Why on earth would you place such a deadly curse on my former colleague who holds the most vital position at North Cowichan today and the most well adapted skilled professional there is for the job?
The only reason to apply to be chief administrative officer at North Cowichan is for the money.
Executives looking at the prospect know they will be dealing with a four-three split council and consequently a short career especially with the turmoil now on council caused by mayor Lefebure.
Mayor Lefebure and councillors Marsh, Douglas and Maguire have demoralized the CAO’s professional staff by frequently ignoring and rejecting their technical recommendations in favour of sophisticated mob rule. An intervention tactic used as a means to delay development and growth through madhouse meetings.
A good seasoned incoming executive manager will know this dysfunctional dynamic is going in, an average one will soon find out.
Sooner or later the CAO will die by the sword of his masters or by his own in defence of them.
They money better be good during and, if one can last four years, the severance after. So if Mr. Ruttan applies he will be padding his own pension after 30 years, not an un-smart thing to do.
There is no controversy around Dave Devana’s departure except the idiotic behaviour of the mayor and his minions. Mr. Devana was most certainly fed up with the nonsense around the council table. The mayor’s inaction and destruction of established goals and objectives for organizational cultural reform in the way North Cowichan operates and does business, led to his demise.
Leave Mr. Ruttan in his place. Pay him $190,000 if need be and start succession planning now to replace him for when he’s ready to retire. He is the honest broker between the CAO and mayor and council and he is proficient and permanent in his role by necessary design.
Mr. Ruttan carries the institutional knowledge and corporate record of North Cowichan from one administration to the next.
The more disturbing part of your opinion is that a former CVRD bureaucrat, turned consultant, seems to be leading the search instead of conducting the search on behalf of the seven governors on council.
The single most important job of a councillor is to actively participate in the hiring of the chief administrative officer, their single employee.
The mayor should be sounding the tone from the top, and leading the charge.
Councillors should be speaking publicly about what attributes they would like to see in a CAO.
The question we should be asking ourselves between now and the next election is: does this mayor and council have the competency to hire a proper CAO in light of the miserable performance that has literally grounded economic growth to zero in North Cowichan? How can we trust their judgement now after their poor performance to this point?
North Cowichan mayor and council fired Dave Devana and proceeded to run the municipality on their own. With no professional management or electoral mandate they opened the Official Community Plan, which put a complete stop on investment interest in the region.
North Cowichan citizens would be well served if they paid closer attention to the candidates running for council in the next election.
There are those with skills that can provide effective oversight and strategic planning, budget planning, risk analysis and performance audits and there are those, who dominate council chamber today, who govern by political ideology and philosophy. The former is not the place for local governance.
Council is responsible and in complete control of the CAO including compensation (doesn’t have to be $190K because a public sector centrist private consultant says so) and performance evaluation.
The public has a vested interest in the CAO. The CAO must execute on the directives given by the council put in place by the people who elected them.
John Koury
Duncan