The former chief administrative officer for the Town of Canmore was paid out over $400,000 upon leaving his job at the end of November.
CAO Don Kochan left the Town’s employment last fall in what Mayor Ron Casey said at the time was a resignation.
But audited financial statements and a FOIPP request by the Outlook have shown he was paid $368,446 in salary and benefits and $32,330 in earned vacation payment.
The total, $400,776, according to Town FOIPP co-ordinator Maureen Reeves, was a payment at the time of Kochan’s resignation.
“The salary and benefits disclosure for the Chief Administrative Officer position contained in the 2011 Audited Financial Statements includes a payment at time of resignation of 18 months’ salary and benefits as stipulated by the contract with the former CAO,” wrote Reeves in an email.
Any further detail regarding that contract or how it ended was unavailable from the municipality and politicians as it is considered privileged information.
Councillor John Borrowman said the contract includes clauses related to confidentiality that cannot be broken.
“It is a contract and it has clauses of confidentiality,” Borrowman said. “We cannot breach that without risking legal action by the former CAO.”
Both Kochan and Casey, at the time the former administrator left the Town’s employement without notice, indicated the decision was the 60-year-old’s after spending five years as CAO and 10 years employed with the municipality.
Kochan is the second CAO in a row to leave the job with a large cheque.
Gene Kiviaho was paid just under a quarter of a million dollars to leave his position in 2007.
After only 10 months of employment, he received $219,053 when he left the job that spring.
Kiviaho was hired by the Town through Edmonton-based HR Group Management Consultants, who were paid $11,000, including expenses, to find a replacement for outgoing CAO Bert Dyck. Kiviaho left a position with the MD of Kneehill County to begin in Canmore in April of 2006.
At that time, Casey said Kiviaho’s leaving was a mutual parting of the ways. Kochan was subsequently named acting CAO while a search for a new head public servant initiated. He was eventually offered the position permanently.
Since Kochan’s departure, Lisa de Soto has been named interim CAO while a recruitment process is again underway.
