Guelph Politicast

The CAO position is the highest ranking official in local government that doesn’t have the job title of either mayor or city councillor, and it’s the only staff position at city hall that’s hired by a committee made up of the mayor and councillors. So yes, it’s a pretty important job, and it’s not like there’s any shortage of issues or needs for the new woman in charge as she enters her first full year in charge. It was about this time last year that Scott Stewart announced that he would be retiring by the summer. Stewart had been the CAO for five years, and they were probably the most challenging five years any CAO has experienced in the history of Guelph. (Well, so far.) He got a lot done, but there also ended up being a lot of work for Tara Baker to do once she picked up the baton in mid-September. Fortunately, she had something of a head start.  Before becoming the CAO, Baker had spent 13 years at Guelph city hall, including the last eight as the City Treasurer and the General Manager of Finance. If the