New In Town: La Ronge Mayor Colin Ratushniak on CAO, Municipal Update

The Town of La Ronge has hired its new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO): Steven Brown (formerly of Prince Albert & North Battleford), after a protracted relationship with HMC Management, operating out of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Context: the CAO's focus is on the day-to-day operation of the municipality and the implementation of council's decisions, so that council is able to concentrate on policy making.

'I think he'll be a huge asset to the town, and not just from a CAO perspective. He really, genuinely wants to be integrated into the town', said Mayor Ratushniak '--you don't want someone who's going to come here for the money and to do a job, you want someone who is community focused.'

The Town's last CAO, Steven Conway, tendered his resignation in August of 2018 and attached an explosive letter. In it, Conway alleged the then council had acted unprofessionally, with bias, and at times in a homophobic way.

The resulting period left instability, and HMC Management was hired (Nov, 2019) to try to find a replacement CAO, and to evaluate many aspects of the Town of La Ronge as an entity.

So began a protracted period, some 17 months, where HMC Management acted as CAO while attempting to fill the role. And while Ratushniak admits: initially he thought this looked strange, he also emphasized the skill HMC brought to the table in handling municipal governance.

It's not as though they're inexperienced: Partner Dean Yaremchuk, one half of HMC Management's core, brought over 40 years of municipal government experience to La Ronge's Council Table--though he did so from his home in Manitoba.

Mayor Ratushniak called the idea of a distance limiting Yaremchuk's ability to understand problems in the tri-communities as a 'misconception'.

Yaremchuk and MHC will be 'taking a step back' says Ratushniak, in a gradual mentorship process that will eventually result in the conclusion of the working-relationship.

The contract that was signed with HMC in 2019 was estimated at $120,000. At the time of writing it is not clear to MBC if this figure was annual, if it moved to a monthly charge after, or what the total cost of HMC's services will be, including the year of Mentorship for CAO Brown.

More information may be available during budgetary meetings to come in spring 2021 ahead of the new fiscal year.