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Vegreville Town Council Fires Chief Administrative Officer
Vegreville Town Council Fires Chief Administrative Officer
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
Vegreville town council has decided to part ways with its Chief Administrative Officer Chris Leggett.
That decision came following a special meeting of council that was held in closed session on July 18. Mayor Tim MacPhee confirmed the firing of Leggett. “We had a special meeting of council on Tuesday night and we discussed our options and the direction that we felt that the municipality should be going and we decided that Chris was just not the right fit for us. So, we came out of our closed session and Chris was served on Wednesday that we relieved him of his duties.
As of right now, Sandra Ling, the Legislative Manager, who has all the credentials to be a CAO; and has actually been applying for other positions at other municipalities has accepted a three-month interim to take on that responsibility and we will hopefully, be hiring her after that. It’s a trail period for Sandra. She’s been with the town for a long time and I have all the confidence in the world that she’ll do a good job.”
MacPhee said he could not provide more details at this time, but confirmed that Leggett was fired without cause and that his contract “clearly states what his compensation is. Right now, I can’t say too much because he has the opportunity to take it to his legal counsel. As that moves along, I might have more to say next week, but for right now it was a decision of council and we just feel Chris just wasn’t the right fit. Nothing other than that.”
Leggett began his official duties with the Town of Vegreville on Jan. 31, 2022. He took over the position from Town Manager Cliff Craig who had served the municipality for many years. MacPhee said Leggett had signed a three year contract, but there were safeguards put in place so they would not have to pay out the entire contract if they parted ways. “There were terms in the contract already, but I can’t discuss that. It was structured yearly basis. When you bring someone new into the community you have to have those safeguards in place.”
He also noted that, “When we hired a company to find someone for that position, Sandra was ranked very high in that group, but we chose Chris, and really no fault of Chris’ the longer people stay in a position the more compensation is needed if you are not happy with them. So, it really wasn’t any one thing with Chris, it was just overall we just figured we wanted to go in a different direction.”
