YORKTON - If you have followed Yorkton Council over the last couple of years you will have likely noticed a level of tension has existed between at least some members of Council, and city administration.
That tension manifested in a rather dramatic way last week when Yorkton Council held a special meeting where they voted six-to-one to terminate long-time City Manager Lonnie Kaal.
As a personnel matter the debate and discussion which took place on the termination was done in-camera – the idea of keeping such discussion behind closed doors is to protect employees from what could be a rather divisive discussion without a move being made.
Yet, now that the decision has been made questions are going to be floated in the community – most directly why?
For example, was it a rift that finally grew too wide during recent budget deliberations?
We are not likely to know, but the timing jives. Of course since this edition of Council chooses to do all of its budget deliberations in-camera taxpayers have no understanding of how they come up with how to spend tax dollars – of course that is a whole different discussion.
Still, if the rift between Council and Kaal was beyond repair then a change is understandable.
That said one might question the timing in as much as the tensions have been noticeable for some time, but might that have changed this fall with a Council that might look quite different depending if incumbents decide not to seek re-election, or voters retire others at the ballot box.
That seems a worthy question because the termination will cost taxpayers – money obviously not in the budget.
Consider that Kaal was being paid a salary of $216,040.50 per year at the time of her termination.
Mayor Mitch Hippsley noted via email, “The details of compensation are at this time not disclosable. We as a local government are subject to legislation that discloses amounts paid out $50,000 and up, and any compensation for this matter will be reflected in the future through the City’s Public Accounts which will be forthcoming.”
So while we will need to wait for the big reveal of the severance package cost it is almost sure to be more – likely far more-- than Kaal’s yearly wage.
Then there will be the costs of a job search, including hiring outside help on that.
And one can speculate the next person to fill the role may expect a bigger wage than a long-term resident might expect.
Would a refreshed Council have saved that money? We will never know.
Kaal served the city in varying capacities for some three decades and that is commendable, but now is a time for change and change can bring new ideas with it.
That too can be a good thing.
