Council members spent about half an hour or more during their March 8 session discussing whether or not to hire Contakt to do a second search for potential suitable candidates for the position of chief administrative officer (CA0) for the municipality. Former CAO Daniel Gatien tendered his resignation last fall and Dominique Dussault, the town’s human resources director, has been serving as acting CAO in addition to her HR duties. 

Contakt is a local firm that specializes in active recruiting, also known as “head hunting”, qualified professional candidates for municipal or corporate posts. Council set up a selection advisory committee to interview all candidates applying for the post and last year the municipality contracted with RH Alternatives to find potential candidates. 

RH Alternatives filed notices in various professional job posting sites and other “passive” forms of recruitment and provided a list of possible candidates for the selection committee to interview. Contakt made a presentation on its services to council during a special meeting March 3. 

In a registered vote at the end of the discussion council decided 4-3 against doing a second candidate search using Contakt’s services. The subject of the CAO recruitment plan was tabled for further discussion during the in-camera session of council.