CAO Search 2015: Search is on for new top bureaucrat

City council will take the next step June 9 toward hiring a permanent chief administrative officer.

Bob Johnston, the CEO of the Greater Sudbury Airport, has been the interim CAO since Doug Nadorozny was let go in April. A report going to council next week recommends creating a hiring committee to recruit someone for the job on a permanent basis.

The report recommends the committee include Mayor Brian Bigger and two city councillors.

The chair of the hiring committee, with help from HR director Kevin Fowke, would be authorized to offer the job to a successful candidate “consistent with CGS’s hiring policies, subject to the subsequent approval of the preferred candidate,” the report says.

“As the filling of this vacancy is a matter of some urgency, staff recommends that council move to appoint a hiring committee at council’s June 9, 2015, meeting, to commence the process,” the report says.

The report also expresses concerns about media inquiries regarding the process, and calls for authorizing only Fowke to comment to reporters until a candidate is selected.

“Much of the process of hiring the next CAO is a private matter protected under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act,” the reports says.

“Council should agree on how all media questions will be handled. A recommendation is to have all media questions be directed to ... Kevin Fowke. Media relations will switch to the mayor and council once an agreement with a preferred candidate has been ratified by council.”

While it hasn't been confirmed publicly, multiple sources at Tom Davies Square have said the decision to relieve Nadorozny of his duties was made by city council during a closed-door meeting in April.

He was in charge of Greater Sudbury Transit when the transit ticket scandal took place. Between 2004 and 2009, a city contractor responsible for selling tickets on Sudbury Transit's behalf had his contract renewed for several years, even though he was behind in remitting the ticket money. The debt grew to as high as $1 million, and the city is still owed about $500,000. The contractor even convinced someone on staff to cross out the name of his business and replace it with his own name on cheques from the city.

After a lengthy investigation, the Ontario Provincial Police decided in 2013 not to press charges, largely because the city decided to extend credit to the company involved, meaning it was no longer a matter of fraud.

The details of the scandal were made public in a 2011 audit by Bigger, who at the time was the city's auditor general. Bigger vowed during the October municipal election campaign to try and make public a forensic audit that was done following the scandal. He has said since the election that he is working on it, but has not yet been successful.

While the search for a new CAO gears up, Johnston is working on finding ways to make up for the $6 million budget gap created this year as a result of the municipal tax freeze, another of Bigger's campaign promises.