BATTLEFORD —The Town of Battleford held a special meeting on Aug. 8 to hire a new chief administrative officer almost two months after council fired former CAO Ashraful Alam on June 9, suspected of killing his wife in Bangladesh.
Earlier reporting indicates Alam told council when he left, apparently in March, that he was going to the United Arab Emirates to attend to a family emergency, after which the town appointed Noreen Hoffart as Interm CAO on April 27. Hoffart will continue in her role as Executive Assistant.
“I'm excited to announce that [the] hiring committee has recommended Landon Chambers to be the new CAO … of the Town of Battleford. with a start date of September 1,” Mayor Ames Leslie told council.
Mayor Leslie noted that Chambers and the town have signed a contract, which now has to be vetted by their lawyers, but all parties have agreed on the parameters of said contract.
“We had some great candidates, and I'm happy that we've chosen this person. Moving forward, he's a local person, and I think that benefits us in the short term and probably the long term, so welcome Landon to our team,” Councillor David George noted, with other councillors also voicing their support.
“He's going to be a good candidate … I look forward to what he'll bring to our community, both in exuberance and in a new perspective, and I think it's been a long time since we've had somebody in the chair who has grown up in the area and has a vested interest in seeing our community grow," added Mayor Leslie.
The Aug. 8 meeting also saw the appointment of the council of the Town of Battleford as interim employee management for all HR matters, which Mayor Leslie said temporarily allows the council to deal with HR matters in lieu of a CAO.
“This is in regards to council if we have another incident, like we did with one of our managers, it gives council the ability to address it immediately,” the mayor said, noting that this is only a temporary measure until the new CAO is trained.
The mayor noted that no single member of council has the ability to hire or fire staff, but that it must be passed by a majority of council during a meeting. A motion will be made at a future council meeting to remove the interim status.
“Because of how long the seat has been vacant, there are some HR matters that have come to head,” Mayor Leslie added.
“This is the approaching council needs to be able to address these HR matters … and this is the legal, transparent way to do it.”
