It’s been nearly 41 years that Calgary’s top bureaucrat and other city officials have flanked the mayor at the head of council, but that arrangement could soon change.
Councillors agreed to advance a Notice of Motion from Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule that would review the seating position of the Chief Administrative Officer and perhaps the city solicitor.
Yule’s motion asks for a review of standard council seating arrangements in other Canadian municipalities and alternative options for Calgary city council chambers.
It’s coming at a time when Calgary city council has begun the search for a new CAO, with David Duckworth set to leave on Dec. 1, 2026. Yule is also chairing the committee leading that search.
He’s been discussing the position with external consultant George Cuff, who pointed out that Calgary’s an anomaly in having the CAO sit next to the mayor during council meetings.
“You don’t have the CAO sitting up with the mayor, you have them sitting down with administration, being the representative of administration,” Yule said.
“It triggered my brain of like, OK, well, we’re making a big change at CAO. Should we be evaluating all aspects of the chamber and how we run our meetings?”
The appearance of the CAO (aka: city manager, chief commissioner) next to the mayor appears to have taken shape when the current city council chambers were opened in Sept. 1985.
In a column from former Calgary Herald writer Peter Morton (April 7, 1984), he notes that previous city commissioners were moved from their perch overlooking council to a corner in the new chamber. City staff members were at the front of the chambers, as they are today, and councillors were seated above those employees.
“It’s more than a mild irritant that in the existing chambers, aldermen look up not only to the city commissioners (the ones accused from time to time of having too much power), but even more junior members of the civic administration,” Morton wrote.
“But, in the new chambers, the elected policy makers will sit on the dais three steps above policy implementation.”
Visual change to go along with the change on council
Yule said that in the last municipal election, when 10 new members were elected, citizens voted for change.
He said he wanted to examine extending that to a visual change.
“(Voters) just changed 10 new councillors and a brand-new mayor,” he said.
“They’re looking for change, and I think we have to be evaluating all aspects, not just the process, but even the visual of, should administration be sitting next to the mayor, or should administration be where the rest of administration is.”
Potential changes to the configuration were contemplated at that time, Morton acknowledged in his 1984 piece. Except for seats in the gallery, nothing else in the chambers had been permanently bolted down.
Calgary city council was, in fact, recently renovated, a $2 million facelift that was the first major upgrade since the building was opened.
Yule said that he didn’t want to presuppose a configuration; he’d prefer to let the exploration begin and see the options when they come back to council in Q4 2026.
Worth noting that Calgary has tinkered with the idea of adding more city councillors, perhaps for the 2029 municipal election. The rearranging of seats could add space for more bodies.
“We’re making these big, big changes at the top. We might as well look at every little piece of the puzzle throughout the organization, and through even the visual representation of what this might look like in our new era of our new CAO,” Yule said.
