The hiring of a new Chief Administrative Officer for St. Stephen has drawn concern from at least one resident.
Lynn Burns also applied for the position, but said she was addressing council as a concerned taxpayer, not because she didn’t get the job.
She says she’s concerned St. Stephen Town Council would hire Jeff Renaud, who was fired without cause as CAO of Elliot Lake, Ontario.
“I googled Jeff Renaud, and I assume that the Mayor and Council are aware that Jeff Renaud was fired as the CAO of Elliot Lake, Ontario about six months ago.”
After some hesitation, Town Council said they were aware of Renaud’s firing before the vote to hire him, here in St. Stephen.
Renaud was fired without cause in Elliot Lake, Ontario. Burns did say she understood that term could mean many different things.
She continued, however, saying she felt the Mayor and Council were putting the town at risk, “Did they seek any legal advice from anybody prior to making a decision to hire somebody who was fired. Did anybody talk to CAO’s or senior managers, owners of huge companies in St. Stephen like Ganong’s or Arauco, the former Flakeboard, to see hypothetically, would you hire a person to run the town of St. Stephen, and pay them the highest paid salary of any person that works for the municipality. Would you hire them? Just hypothetically to see what they would say.”
The vote to hire Renaud was 4-2, with Councillors Marg Harding and Ken Parker both voting against hiring Renaud. They said it was due to part of the CAO’s contract they didn’t agree with, but were not able to say what that was.
Renaud was not at the meeting, as he has not relocated yet.
