Gravenhurst CAO Glen Davies’ retirement may be a year away, but town council is already looking for his replacement.
It was announced during Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting that Davies will be retiring on October 31st, 2021. The recruitment effort has already started. Council has brought in a search firm that will work with council and Gravenhurst’s Human Resources department. “The role of the head hunters will be to touch base with council to see figure out what they want to see in the next CAO,” Gravenhurst Mayor Paul Kelly says. He suggests that internal candidates will be interviewed as well as external ones.
“I want to thank Glen for his guidance and leadership to our municipality over the last five years,” Gravenhurst Mayor Paul Kelly says. “This year especially has been an extremely challenging time in our history. Through Glen’s leadership, the Town has operated in a favourable position and we can rest assured that staff are providing the best level of service under his leadership. On behalf of all Council, I extend our best wishes to Glen and his wife Diana on the upcoming new chapter in their lives.”
The town says Davies role as CAO is “key” for the operations they run in the community. The person in that position is the middle man and advisor to council and other members of staff. “All of council basically oversees the role of CAO so they will all have a role to play in the selection of a new one,” Kelly says.
A screening committee will be involved in the process as well. They will help narrow the candidates down to “three or four” who Kelly says will then be interviewed by council. He says they hope to have a new CAO in place by the summer so that person can be trained by Davies before he leaves his post.
Davies left his role as the City Manager in Regina, Saskatchewan in 2015 to take over as Gravenhurst CAO from Dave Weldon.