The Village of Clyde’s new chief administrative officer Edward LeBlanc has only been on the job for just over a week, but his familiarity with the region stretches back decades.
LeBlanc got his start working in administration for the Town of Calmar before moving to Westlock County and over the course of 29 years he worked his way up to CAO. He left the municipality in 2014 in what was termed at the time a “mutual parting of ways.”
“I’ve been living in the region for some 30 years. In 1985 I moved to the Westlock area to work for the county. I started as the assistant administrator, but for the last seven years I was their chief administrator.”
Now, as Transitional Solutions Inc. (TSI)’s pick to fill the contracted position in Clyde, he’s getting up to speed on the community’s issues.
“I was approached by TSI to see if I would be interested in the CAO position for the village,” he said. “I thought it would be an interesting position. With my experience with Westlock County I thought it would be a good fit.”
While he has a few other files with other municipalities he’s handling for TSI, LeBlanc said Clyde will be his main focus at least for the six months the village holds the contract with TSI.
If they like what they see, council can extend the contract as needed.
In the meantime, LeBlanc said he will focus on making sure there is a strong connection between the decisions made at council and the efforts on the ground to fulfill those decisions.
“One of the major roles of the CAO is to provide relevant information to council so they can make a strong, community-minded decision,” he said. “The most important part of the job is to ensure that administration follows up on the direction of council.
“I see 2019 as quite exciting in terms of planning. There’s a number of things we need to do, we have to look at our partnerships with either the town and/or the county. We need to take a look at our viability study and move forward on the recommendations. So 2019 could be an important year for planning the long term.”
He added he was happy to be working in the area.
“I’m looking forward to working with council and staff, as well as to getting to know all the residents around the village,” he said.
“I’m still working to fully digest the regional collaboration report that was done a few years ago, as well as the viability study and the 10-year strategic plan.”
