Several Calgary city councillors believe someone high up in the organization should take the fall for the state of the problematic Bearspaw South feeder main.

On Tuesday, Calgary city councillors received an overview of the process for evaluating the Chief Administrative Officer’s  (CAO) performance, as a part of their annual review of the position.

The process involves a self-evaluation in multiple categories and anonymized councillor ratings, which are then aggregated for an overall rating. Salary bands are also discussed as part of the process.

The presentation came as the conversation heated up over accountability for the most recent Bearspaw South feeder main rupture and the results of the independent review on the 2024 rupture, showing more than two decades of poor oversight and lack of risk management of Calgary’s water infrastructure.

Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers, who represents a part of the area impacted by the recent feeder main break, said that with public trust at an all-time low, someone needs to take the fall for the state of Calgary’s water infrastructure.

“I think it was very clear in the panel report that somebody does need to take responsibility for this. It’s been clear from Calgarians that somebody needs to take responsibility for this as well,” she told reporters.

“If we can show the public that we’re serious about this and that we’re serious about accountability, then maybe that would be a good way forward.”

When asked if it should be CAO David Duckworth’s job, Tyers said that it does need to be someone with stature in the organization, someone who is in charge of making decisions.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said that if you want the decision-making culture to change, that change has to come at the top.

“We’re going to talk about it as a council. I think there’s been enough conversations around the city about it,” he said.

“I’m hearing it from community leaders. I’m hearing it from business leaders, and I get it, people usually want somebody at the top if something goes terribly wrong. So, I think we’ll discuss that.”

Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston, when asked if CAO David Duckworth should be fired, said that there has to be a massive change in the organization.

“That conversation has been had since day one,” he told reporters.

“I mean, if, if there’s ever anything behind the scenes, it’s that our main goal is to ensure that the right people are in the right positions, right, and yes, that conversation has been had, again, since day one.”

Panel didn’t single anyone out: Coun. Chabot

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot acknowledged that there may have been internal experts who made value-based decisions in the past on the critical nature of the Bearspaw pipe. He said that up until the point it ruptured, it wasn’t critical… now it is.

Still, he took a different view of the report than Coun. Tyers.

“I think the report clearly identified that there is no one individual specifically that can be handed the smoking gun, so to speak,” he said.

“There’s no one that was independently responsible. Not all the information was shared with everyone, including folks in upper administration.”

The independent panel chair, Siegfried Kiefer, has offered somewhat conflicting thoughts on the matter, saying that he wouldn’t let the status quo remain when asked during council’s briefing on the independent review reporter, if he were in a similar situation. However, when he spoke with the media upon the report’s release, he was clear that there’s no one person, or era, that was responsible.

“I would not lay blame at the foot of any one individual or any one era of council. This problem existed. It repeated itself. It did not surface to the right level of decision-making,” he said.

“It’s very difficult, in my opinion, to lay specific blame on any individual. We had a process weakness that was not corrected.”

CAO David Duckworth responded to rumours circulating about his demise as the city’s top bureaucrat.

“First and foremost, it’s an honour to serve Calgarians, city council, and city administration as the Chief Administrative Officer,” he told reporters.

“Right now, my team and I are laser focused on three things, and that is to get out of the current crisis, lift water restrictions, build a redundant pipe so this problem doesn’t happen again. And third, implementing the independent panel reviews recommendations as swiftly as possible.

“It would be up to council to have that conversation with me, if they don’t want me here.”

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that city council constantly has to review if the right people are in the jobs to execute the vision for the city.

“The expectation from Calgarians is that city council is going to hold our city administration to account, but also to support them in providing the resources, the culture to get that work done,” he said.

“So, this is not a combative environment, but we have to be able to ask really hard questions without necessarily letting personality get in the way.”