Succession planning. That’s the reasoning given by Chatham-Kent CAO Michael Duben for the municipality seeking to hire a “Mini Me” version of Duben.
A job posting for a deputy chief administrative officer for C-K surfaced recently on the employment website Indeed.com, with a salary structure of between $196,000 to $240,000.
That’s pretty rich money for being the number two person of a municipality of 110,000 people.
It’s also a new position. As mentioned, Duben said it’s for planning for his eventual replacement.
Is it necessary?
That salary level translates to the taxes from more than 60 average homes in Chatham-Kent.
Let’s look back on the past CAO situation in C-K. Prior to Duben’s hiring, we had – briefly – Thomas Kelly, who was previously the general manager of infrastructure and engineering. Kelly was hired…until he wasn’t, a mere months after accepting the job. Details were not forthcoming over the breakup.
Prior to Kelly, Don Shropshire led the municipality as CAO for a decade. He too was promoted from within, having been the general manager of community development.
Rob Browning predated Shropshire, coming from out of town to take the top job. Ditto for Joe Pavelka, the inaugural CAO of Chatham-Kent.
So we’ve had a mix of hirings from within and without in our nearly three decades of existence as a municipality. There was no Mini Me position in place.
One trend that cannot be ignored, however, is salaries. Duben was paid nearly $320,000 in 2023. Just one year prior, Shropshire was paid nearly $258,000 for doing the same job. What changed in a year? Why did Duben receive $62,000 more in compensation? That’s a pay hike of 24 per cent, unheard of numbers.
And now, Duben’s Mini Me could come in at a salary of $240,000, nearly as much as Shropshire made as boss upon his retirement just three years ago.
The spending on salaries is baffling. A municipal job went from decent pay with great benefits to great pay with great benefits. And it all comes at the expense of taxpayers.
Proponents of such compensation say the municipality has to pay top dollar for top people. But we have the seventh-highest paid CAO in Ontario, according to 2023 figures.
We’re not even in the top two dozen most-populous municipalities in Ontario, but we pay like a top-10 one. And we’re adding overseers.
Something is very wrong with that picture.
Michael Duben does not need a mini-me to be his successor.
A succession plan for all of municipal staff should be in place for all, but at no cost.
To pay for a mini-me is ridiculous.
I would like to know who approved a 24 percent hike in pay for a new CAO.
Who gets a 24 percent raise in any position??
The salary, which is the second highest in the province for a municipality of our size, is a detriment to the taxpayers, whose infrastructure is suffering.
The spending in Chatham-Kent is out of control. The councillors don’t care and the administration is running things. The tail is wagging the dog. This needs to stop. I have asked many councillors the same question, “where do you think all this money is going to come from, do you not care about the senior citizen on a fixed income, the single mom, the new home owner?” What I hear is CRICKETS. Our council doesn’t care, not one bit. They should all be voted out and we should have the mechanism to recall them. They certainly are not earning the $39,000 per year we pay them for 4 days a month worth of attendance. I would say work, but not one is actually putting in the work to protect the taxpayer.