BOWDEN -- Bowden has a new chief administrative officer (CAO).
He is Greg Skotheim, currently manager of public works and infrastructure with the Town of Didsbury.
Council ratified Skotheim's appointment during its March 25 town council meeting. He starts his new job on April 29.
The CAO is the top administrative post in the town office, overseeing town staff and carrying out the directives of town council.
According to a town news release, Skotheim has more than 24 years of experience in various facets of municipal government operations.
For nearly the last six years, he has been the Town of Didsbury's manager of public works and infrastructure as well as its deputy director of emergency management.
Before that, on two separate occasions for a total of 13 years, Skotheim was the director of operations and infrastructure as well as director of emergency management and community services manager for the Town of Three Hills.
He also has experience on the operations side of the Anthony Henday Water Treatment Plant.
He has a bachelor's degree in recreation administration, a local government administration certificate, plus a certificate in municipal management and leadership.
"Council feels that Mr. Skotheim brings the right blend of education, hands-on experience and leadership to the town of Bowden," a news release says.
"He comes with a vast professional network of contacts as well as a solid understanding of the local area, issues and challenges. Council is confident that with the addition of Mr. Skotheim to the existing team, the town of Bowden is well positioned for the future."
Skotheim replaces James Mason who had served as the town's CAO from March 2016 until early July 2018. However, he had been on medical leave since since Jan. 12, 2018.
Jacqui Molyneux, the town’s chief financial officer (CFO), has served as acting CAO since Mason went on medical leave and after he and the town parted ways in July 2018.
Once council passed a motion confirming their decision to hire Skotheim for the post, several councillors let out yells of celebration, saying "yee-haw," and "whee!"
During an interview with Mountain View Publishing, Mayor Robb Stuart was asked why it took so long to replace Mason.
He said back around the time of the last municipal election in the fall of 2017, councillors were looking at hiring a public works foreman.
"We spent four or five months going down that road. And then when Mr. Mason left, we decided it was more important to have a CAO than a public works (foreman). So five months was pretty well wasted while we were figuring on a public works manager," Stuart said.
"Then once we decided that we needed a CAO -- that decision was only made -- because some people still wanted to focus on a public works foreman.
"So there was a little discussion for about a month there whether we should -- which job we should fill first and then we finally agreed it should be a CAO -- chief administrative officer."
They hired an executive recruiter to help in the search.
Stuart said about 30 people applied for the job. Ten candidates were forwarded to council and of that group, they interviewed five before settling on Skotheim.
Skotheim's resume was attractive. Stuart said council also liked his approach to the job.
"He really respects council's role. He knows that he's our only employee. He runs everything and we make policies and that," he said.
"We asked him if council made a decision, which happens quite often, that the CAO was not in support of, how do you handle that? Some said that they would bring it back to council to make sure that they had the proper information that was needed and review it," Stuart said.
He said Skotheim's response, in essence, was "once the decision's made, it's my role to move forward on it."
"He said, 'I try to give council as much background on that subject as possible for their information and if they have some other information that is brought to their attention they're (welcome to do so).'
"Some CAOs it is. Some get very defensive about --'well, I spent a lot of time researching that and then you don't accept it anyway,'" Stuart said. "Well, I used to argue a lot with my boss too," he added with a laugh.
"And he's been the deputy director of emergency management for both the towns he's been in so we will appoint him director of emergency management. He's got a really good background there."
Stuart is relieved by that because he has served as director of emergency management and he believes that's not the role for a politician.
"I was the director of emergency management for three years but it should never have been my role," he said.
"You should really separate council from that management person, right, because he's got to be coordinating all the emergency actions and council is supposed to be available to answer all the questions from the press."
Stuart was also impressed with Skotheim's ability to get to the nub of a question.
"He was pretty concise in his answers. We had some that were a little bit long-winded for lack of a better term," he said.
Stuart also noted that at least initially, plans call for Skotheim to serve as manager of public works because he has a background in that area.
"I think he'll fit in well doing both. And after he sorts the town out a little bit, gets to know his roles and responsibilities and the staff and everything, he might make a recommendation to us that we should hire a public works (foreman)," Stuart said.
Stuart is hopeful they've got a CAO for the next several years. Skotheim has signed a four-year contract.
That's a relief to Stuart.
"We've probably had eight or nine (CAOs) in 12, 14 years," he said.
"We're all glad that we have, we think a viable (employee)," he said.
Stuart said Skotheim will be commuting from Didsbury.
While he's not living right in Bowden, Stuart said it won't take him long to get into town if there's an emergency.
He said the April 29 start date was agreed upon so Skotheim could give the Town of Didsbury adequate notice.
Skotheim could not be reached for comment at press time.
