Jason Stockfish, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
Fourteen months into his role as the Municipality of Jasper’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), the Fitzhugh caught up with Bill Given to discuss the priorities of town administration.
When Given took over as head of the municipality’s administrative team on Jan. 1, 2021, he brought significant government experience with him, having previously served 10 years as a city councillor in Grande Prairie, followed by another decade as the city’s mayor.
Given explained that while he chose to leave his position as mayor of Grande Prairie, his commitment to community building was not over.
“When I decided to leave elected office, I knew I wanted to stay involved in local government, because it does have such a direct impact on peoples’ lives and if I wasn’t going to be doing that in my home community to be able to do that in a place as special as Jasper, that had such a strong sense of community already, is a real honour,” Given said.
“And I’m just thankful I’ve been able to continue in local government and leverage the skills and experience that I have.”
Regarding how those 20 years of experience have assisted him thus far as Jasper’s CAO, Given said having experienced the range of issues council is presented with allows him to relate.
“I hope that I’ve been able to bring a bit of a perspective about the challenges that council faces and the way that council approaches decision making, and I hope that I’ve been able to bring that into our administrative team,” he said.
He has also worked to present information going to council and the public in a way that properly presented the facts that council needed to make good decisions.
Given noted that administration is awaiting council’s establishment of its strategic plan, where council will identify its priorities for service delivery and advocacy this term.
“That’s really where (administration) gets its marching orders. Council is booked to do that in early April,” he said.
“And that is probably one of the most important early discussions that council will have because it will set the work plan for administration for the balance of the term.”
Given went on to explain that administration’s responsibility is to “convene and coordinate and facilitate” for council, essentially setting up the process around strategic planning.
“That sets the table for them, so to speak, so that they can engage in the discussions about what is important for the community.”
Looking inward at municipal administration priorities, Given said there were opportunities to refine municipal services so they are “well-aligned” with council’s expectations and the desires of the community.
Administration will also focus on the newly created Community Development department.
“As a part of the creation of (Community Development), our municipal engagement with other community partners in recreation and culture and business is something that I really want to see our administration team, our staff team, work on,” Given said.
He added that hiring Christopher Read to direct the new department was a great addition.
As for other administrative priorities, Given said it was important to ensure that assets were maintained.
“Our operations and facilities teams are really focused on ensuring our wastewater systems are up to snuff and we’re doing some important studies that will give us baseline information and allow us to make well-informed capital plans and bring forward-looking capital budgets to council.”
Given added that there is some policy work and bylaw policies that need to be revised, and administration will be making recommendations so those policies are up to date and as efficient as possible.
“All of those things that the administration is currently focused on are in order to ensure that we have a well-oiled machine that is ready to be directed towards the strategic priorities that council chooses.”
