EP 12: Who Best to Evaluate Our Chief Administrative Officer?

Описание: If the CAO runs the administration, who evaluates the CAO?

This is one of the most important and least discussed questions in municipal government. Residents often feel frustrated about outcomes, but it is not always clear where accountability actually sits. Council is elected and evaluated at the ballot box. But the CAO, who manages staff and implements council’s decisions, must also be evaluated properly and fairly.

In this episode, I walk through the different ways municipalities have tried to review a CAO’s performance and why many of those approaches fall short.

I explain:
Why hiring an outside consultant can be costly and disconnected from daily reality
Why a small committee of council can create imbalance in a small municipality
Why having staff evaluate the CAO can introduce division and suspicion
Why the mayor alone should not control the performance review process
Why the full council, together, is the most objective and accountable model

A healthy municipal government depends on clear lines of authority and mutual accountability. The CAO reports to council as a body. Therefore, it is council as a body that must conduct the evaluation, using a structured and objective process.

This is not about personalities. It's about governance. It's about fairness. It's about making sure that the political and administrative sides of municipal government function together in a way that builds trust rather than erodes it.

Tomorrow, I'll share what a proper evaluation tool can look like and how performance reviews can be conducted in a way that is rigorous, balanced, and constructive.

Book: https://www.municipalworld.com/produc...

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