In a move that has raised some eyebrows, a member of St. Albert’s council has been hired for a top management level position within the city.
Gilles Prefontaine handed in his resignation earlier this week. Council and the public were informed that Prefontaine has accepted the position of chief community development officer on Wednesday.
The title is a new one for St. Albert, but city manager Patrick Draper said it’s actually the re-named general manager of planning and engineering position. The Build St. Albert department will also be part of Prefontaine’s supervision. The job pays between $130,000 and $150,000 a year.
David Hales previously filled the position of general manager of planning and engineering. Hales left last year to take a role with the City of Edmonton.
Draper said a few weeks after Hales left he started working with an executive search firm, Davies Park, to begin the process to fill the renamed position.
The firm’s “opportunity profile” for the position went online in November 2014. The several page profile describes the person as a “visionary, responsible for leading the long term sustainable growth of the City and coordinating the development of new civic facilities and infrastructure while ensuring that existing civic assets are maintained in excellent condition.”
The chief community development officer will report to the city manager – Draper – and oversee a staff of 51 full-time or equivalent to full-time staff, an annual operating budget with $2.5-million in revenue and $8.5-million in expenses, plus a capital budget that’s about $30-million annually, the profile says.
The profile asked for five or more years as a senior executive in the public government or private sector, plus an undergraduate degree in business, engineering or planning, with a masters preferred. An understanding of a variety of legislation was required as well.
Draper said the firm started going through its network to find candidates.
“I was advised that they had spoken with over 400 individuals, not all of whom would have been candidates but might have known someone, and they had conversations with I believe somewhere between 25 and 30 individuals … then there were profiles of 15 or so that I would have seen,” Draper said.
From those 15 a shortlist was created, and Draper, the executive recruiter and the city’s director of human resources interviewed three finalists, of which Prefontaine was one.
Draper said Prefontaine wanted to earn the role through the selection process.
“Gilles is very well spoken. He’s an executive. He has a very strong business background,” Draper said.
Draper said Prefontaine has the “fundamental management skills” needed to be a general manager at the city, which include tasks like budgeting and strategic planning.
“What distinguished him from the other applicants was his ability to envision where the city is going, and this was a really major component of what we were looking for,” Draper said. Draper noted that Prefontaine not only had executive-level experience, but also has been very involved in the community.
Prefontaine’s community involvement has included Grow St. Albert, the St. Albert Socceer Association, Junior Achievement, the chamber of commerce and the St. Albert Economic Development Advisory Committee.
Draper said he thinks it’s good there was already an executive search firm in place when Prefontaine decided to apply.
“I have no qualms or reservations about the process that was used,” Draper said, adding the announcement to staff garnered a positive response.
“There was some hooting and hollering,” he said.
Prefontaine’s job history includes several years as a director at Telus as a senior business manager, managing marketing teams across Alberta and Eastern Canada.
More recently he was a director of strategic planning at Servus Credit Union for a few years.
Prior to resigning to run in the 2013 municipal election, Prefontaine worked for about half a year as director of advertising for the St. Albert Leader, a job Prefontaine went to after leaving Servus Credit Union. He said he spent some time helping a friend, doing business development and got to be involved in the community.
For the past several years, including his time on council, Prefontaine has been a sessional business instructor at MacEwan.
He’s got a degree in economics and a masters of business administration from Heriot Watt University’s Edinburgh Business School.
“This wasn’t handed to me, this wasn’t an appointment,” Prefontaine said, pointing out there were other candidates and the search was conducted using an external recruiter.
He said there have been occasions – like in Turner Valley, where a town councillor left to become CAO – that council members have gone to administrative roles.
“It might be uncommon that it happens, but I made sure that I maintained myself to a standard that would have been beyond reproach,” Prefontaine said.
Some might be concerned he has no planning or engineering experience, but Prefontaine said he has the management skills for the role.
“I’m not planning or engineering, I’m leading a department,” Prefontaine said, noting he’ll have experienced staff who do the technical roles.
He said this position is not something he expected to come out, nor was it created for him.
“It spoke to me in terms of my passion for building a more sustainable community,” Prefontaine said. “There’s absolutely nothing through the process where my role on council influenced this.”
Not everyone thinks Prefontaine’s actions – applying for a job with the city while on council – are beyond reproach.
Coun. Cam MacKay, one of Prefontaine’s now-former council colleagues, thinks Prefontaine’s skills don’t match what one should have for a general manager of planning and engineering.
“This isn’t a fluff position,” MacKay said. “This one just blows me away.”
The position should require at least 10 years of experience or planning or engineering, he said, plus appropriate education and credentials.
There might be some instances of small-town councillors switching to town staff where it’s hard to get staff, he said, but he thinks a move on this level is “unheard of.”
“This demeans the role of council,” MacKay said, adding it shows “if you’re a good yes man, there’s a pretty plum position [for you].”
“Gilles should have never been permitted to apply nor should he have even attempted to apply for a position,” MacKay said in an email, adding Prefontaine should have been told he was in a conflict of interest.
Technically, the city CAO is the only employee of city council. Prefontaine was on council – and council was recently reviewing Draper’s performance – while going through the process of applying to work for Draper.
Prefontaine even took the lead in refreshing the “instrument” to be used to evaluate Draper, and developed a draft of the city manager’s 2015 goals as part of process of evaluating Draper, according to a work plan presented to council in November.
Mayor Nolan Crouse was only made aware of Prefontaine’s application a few days ago when he was offered the job, Crouse said.
“I did not know this. I was surprised,” Crouse said. He quoted the Turner Valley example, and said he’s sure there have been precedents elsewhere.
“I think it becomes more rare in a larger corporation,” Crouse said.
He said questions – what he said are probably legitimate questions – and any perceptions about Prefontaine getting the job will have to be addressed by Prefontaine and Draper.
“From a mayor point of view, this kind of is a non-issue, but Gilles and Patrick have to deal with the fallout,” he said. “My role is to be supportive of Gilles and Patrick.”
He said the city will be well-served by Prefontaine.
As mayor, his focus is now getting the now-needed byelection up and running as soon as possible.
Currently the date of June 23 “is being chatted about,” Crouse said, but council will get a report at their meeting on Monday and he hopes they’ll decide when the election is.
A representative from the province’s Municipal Affairs department said in an email the councillor acted properly by resigning once accepting the job, but said Prefontaine wouldn’t be considered to have had a pecuniary interest in continuing to cast votes while applying for a job with the city.
Political scientist Jim Lightbody, of the University of Alberta, questioned what a reasonable person would think of a councillor getting a high level position at the city.
He pointed out that the city manager reports to council.
“All of a sudden one of the hydra heads of your boss says I want this job,” Lightbody said.
“I think that in that context that it would have been more appropriate for that councillor to resign and apply for that job,” Lightbody said.
He said the switch from council to a role with administration is uncommon.
“I am surprised that anyone would claim that. The jobs are very distinct, the roles are very distinct,” Lightbody said.
Lightbody pointed out the province’s auditor general, Merwan Saher’s comments about how you can’t put in a rule to cover every possible instance.
“He said ‘You don’t need a corset of regulation if you have a backbone of principle,’” Lightbody said.
