MD OF BIGHORN – After more than five years with the MD of Bighorn as its chief administrative officer (CAO), Robert Ellis has been removed from his position.
Lisa Rosvold, the reeve for Bighorn, said council decided to go in a new direction for its top non-elected position.
“Our council is in a point of adjustment right now,” Rosvold said. “We have asked Shaina Tutt to be our acting CAO, while we are in the process of finding an interim CAO.”
Ellis was not at the Oct. 11 Bighorn council meeting. According to Rosvold, he was terminated from his position on the evening of Oct. 11 at a special meeting of council.
Tutt is currently the director of finance for the MD of Bighorn, and has been in that position since August 2013. Prior to that, she served for three years as an accounting assistant.
Until the interim CAO is chosen, Rosvold and council are confident in Tutt as acting CAO.
“She has been designated by a resolution as the acting CAO,” Rosvold said. “I believe she is going to be a leader to help us through this transition.”
The role of CAO is the lone position that reports to council and is the municipality’s top administrator. Among the responsibilities are advising council of the ongoing operations of the municipality, completing work assigned by council and working with staff to ensure council’s objectives and policies are being implemented.
The majority of municipal councils annually review the performance of CAOs to see if their goals and objectives are being met.
In other nearby municipalities, new CAOs have come into the fold after a relatively long period of little to no movement.
The Town of Canmore hired Sally Caudill as its new CAO earlier this year following the retirement of long-time CAO Lisa de Soto. The Town of Banff named Kelly Gibson for its top administrative spot in 2020 following Robert Earl leaving the role after 15 years.
Ellis had been the director of planning services since December 2011 before taking over as acting CAO in 2017 while the previous CAO Martin Buckley was on a leave of absence due to medical reasons. Following Buckley’s retirement in 2018, Ellis became the permanent CAO on Jan. 1, 2019.
Prior to joining the MD of Bighorn, Ellis worked for the Town of Canmore in the planning and development and community services departments beginning in the mid-1990s until 2006. He also worked in the private sector for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Three Sisters Mountain Village and the IBI Group.
Once an interim CAO is appointed, council will begin the search for a permanent CAO.
“We do anticipate we will be working with a recruitment agency," said Rosvold.
