Rocky View County (RVC) is confirming RVC council has voted to terminate the employment of CAO Dorian Wandzura, following a special council meeting held on Aug. 1
While no specific cause for the surprise termination was given, the County's news release on the decision hints that Wandzura had fallen out of favour with a majority of current RVC council members.
“Council wishes to move onto an individual that has a different style of leadership to support Council, residents, and the diversity of Rocky View County,” the municipality stated in a statement posted on its website.
In the same statement, the County confirmed it will be appointing Executive Director of Operations Byron Riemann as acting CAO until a permanent replacement for Wandzura can be chosen.
“This decision enables us to take the necessary time to thoughtfully chart our next recruitment for a permanent CAO while ensuring continuity under Mr. Riemann's capable management.” said Reeve Crystal Kissel, who did not go into further details about what led to the decision to terminate Wandzura.
Riemann is no stranger to the CAO role for RVC, having served in that capacity on an interim basis previously, prior to Wandzura's hiring.
“I extend my gratitude to Mr. Wandzura for his past contributions and am ready to assist council in this capacity (as acting CAO),” confirmed Riemann in a statement released to the public.
Wandzura became RVC’s CAO in May 2022. Before his hiring, the designated engineer and operations professional held senior administrative positions with several municipalities in Saskatchewan and Alberta throughout his career, including Yorkton, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Regina, and Edmonton.
He stepped down from his position with the City of Edmonton as a member of the municipality's senior leadership team in 2016 to become partner of his own consulting company, LadderUp Consulting Ltd., before being hired as CAO of Rocky View County.
Wandzura was preceded in the CAO position by Riemann and the County's Executive Director of Corporate Services Kent Robinson, who both held the role on an interim basis after the departure of Al Hoggan in the spring of 2021.
The vote on Aug. 1 was 4-3, with Couns. Greg Boehlke, Don Kochan, Crystal Kissel and Al Schule voting in favour of terminating Wandzura's contract with Couns. Kevin Hanson, Samanntha Wright, and Deputy Reeve Sunny Samra voted the other way.
In her remarks prior to the vote, Wright conceded some of her colleagues might have legitimate concerns about Wandzura's performance, but she did not feel now was the time to make such a drastic change in the County's administrative leadership.
“I think we gave him a number of items to work on, and I think those are being worked on well,” she said. “Granted, there has been some issues with how slow things have moved, and we would like things to move more quickly, but that is all starting to come into fruition and we would come out far further ahead than doing this at this time.”
Deputy Reeve Samra felt his council colleagues who voted to remove Wandzura were being shortsighted in letting the CAO go after only holding the position for one year.
“What’s the end goal?” he asked. “Where are we going with this? I believe it’s a little shortsighted or premature. That’s my understanding of this. I would also like to add that I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the County. We are halfway through our term already, and this decision is definitely not in the best interest of the County, from how I look at it.”
However, Samra and Wright's arguments failed to sway Boehlke, Kochan, Kissel and Schule.
Reached after the vote, Boehlke, a veteran of bitter past council disputes over administrative leadership, confirmed the decision in this case was “just business.”
“We just felt as a council we wanted to go in a different direction and have a CAO that supports the direction of council,” he said.
—With files from Masha Scheele/Rocky View Weekly
