The District of Sechelt welcomed Rick Beauchamp as interim chief administrative officer (CAO) this week, but how long he'll stay is anyone's guess.
"Our agreement with Rick is flexible. We're anticipating four months and if we need to go a bit farther, that's fine. If somebody landed on our doorstep tomorrow, we could move faster," said Sechelt Mayor John Henderson, adding the recruitment for a permanent CAO is now underway.
Beauchamp has more than 40 years of service in local government under his belt. His credentials include CAO appointments with some of the fastest growing municipalities in B.C. He has worked for West Vancouver, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, Abbotsford, Kelowna, Revelstoke, Castlegar, Kamloops and the Kootenay Boundary Regional District.
In 2011 Beauchamp also held an interim CAO position for the Town of Gibsons.
Henderson said the District was pleased to bring in Beauchamp to lessen the load on senior staff who have been filling the role since former CAO Rob Bremner was let go on March 16.
"So it's great to have Rick available, and to be able to get him in so quickly is really good because everybody here is so busy. To load on the management responsibilities of the CAO onto the others was not going to work for very long," Henderson said.
Beauchamp lives in North Vancouver, but he will be at the District of Sechelt physically three days a week.
"He may commute each day or he may stay overnight for late meetings, and the other days he'll work from home or as needed," Henderson said.
The District has entered into a contract with Western Management Consultants to seek out a new permanent CAO who is a good fit for Sechelt.
The consulting company will bring their picks to council, which will have the final say.
"[Western Management Consultants] have got certainly a national reach if not a global reach, so the opportunity to find somebody who might be living and working in Winnipeg or Wichita is part of why we're using them, because we do want to find the absolute best person for this job," Henderson said. "It's a very important job for Sechelt. It's important for staff and it's very important for council."
Henderson said council is taking the recruitment of a new permanent CAO very seriously.
"Everything kind of hinges on that man or woman. Strictly speaking, we as council have one employee and that's the CAO," Henderson added. "All the other employees work for the CAO, so if we don't have a great person in there who's willing to implement the vision of council, then council's not going to get things done that they feel need to be done, and that's not going to be very much fun for anybody."
