Chris Stedile
Rossland News
The City of Rossland has found a new interim chief administrative officer in Mike Maturo, who previously worked for the city as the senior planner. Maturo will begin his new job April 27.
In a news release, the city said the search and hiring process after previous acting administrator Tracey Butler resigned was long and arduous but they wanted to make sure the person who fill the role would perform the job to the same standard.
“After reviewing dozens of resumes and interviewing five finalists, city council selected Mr. Maturo to fill this critical position while the current chief administrative/chief financial officer is on extended leave,” the statement said.
“We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Maturo as interim CAO,” Mayor Kathy Moore said. “With his extensive municipal experience and understanding of the city, Mr. Maturo is able to immediately step into the CAO role and have a positive impact that will help move the city forward.”
From 2007 to 2013, Maturo was Rossland’s manager of planning and development services. However, the city eliminated his position.
“There was an effort to contain costs,” Moore said. “We had two planners at the time and we didn’t have much development going on in the town, so the decision by the council of the day was to let Mr. Maturo go and promote the planning assistant to the planner position.”
However during his time with the city, he made significant contributions to the community, including facilitating the adoption of the strategic sustainability plan, re-writing the official community plan, drafting the tax revitalization bylaw and modernizing the zoning bylaw.
Maturo also led the downtown revitalization design process, managed the community wildfire protection plan, drafted the 2011 municipal infrastructure and facilities improvement plan, and was the city’s representative for the regional liquid waste management plan. He further led the initiative to establish the city’s active transportation plan and successfully obtained a number of grants.
Maturo’s previous experience includes working for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Kosovo, where he was the Municipal Infrastructure Program Manager for four years and responsible for five international development programs.
Prior to Kosovo, Maturo was a field officer with USAID in Bosnia where he worked on reconstruction projects with 15 municipalities and coordinated early recovery efforts with both international and local stakeholders.
Maturo holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning, as well as a bachelor of science degree in economics. He has managed both office staff and contractors, and has over 17 years of experience working in small-to-medium sized municipalities.
Last year he briefly served as interim director of development services and engineering in Nelson, but resigned before his contract ended.
“Mr. Maturo brings a wealth of practical, organizational and managerial knowledge to the position,” Moore said.
“Rossland has major infrastructure challenges ahead and Mr. Maturo’s previous experience, knowledge of our community, our infrastructure situation and the issues raised by the Auditor General for Local Government make him an excellent choice for interim CAO. City council is delighted to welcome him into this new role.”
As for Butler, she is now Castlegar’s director of corporate services. She began work April 7, replacing the retiring Carolyn Rempel.
“I’m really fortunate that I had such a great education by working in Rossland for 20 years and it’s really nice to be able to bring that over here and to help out,” Butler said.
She said council has been very helpful and supportive in welcoming her to her new role and she looks forward to many years in Castlegar.
Butler filled in for the last year as acting chief administrator in Rossland while Cecille Arnott was on sick leave.
However, her recent resignation led to criticism from former councillor and mayoral candidate Jill Spearn, who said the city paid a high price to lose a valuable employee.
Spearn said Butler was entitled to work for two more years under her contract, but residents were left to pay out nearly $200,000.
Moore countered that Butler’s contract, and the contract of the public works director Darrin Albo were in dire need of change. Council agreed as part of their attempts to reorganize city hall.
Butler’s payout, Moore said, was in recognition of her many years of service.
Albo is on leave while city council looks at ways to lessen his workload and change his contract.