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Two of the top bureaucrats at Calgary City Hall will be leaving their jobs.
The city’s Chief Administrative Officer, David Duckworth, will be leaving his role at the end of the year after an agreement was struck with city council.
Chief Operating Officer Stuart Dagleish will also be retiring.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday morning.
The move comes after a lengthy closed-door session with city councillors that ended late Tuesday night.
Council voted 11 to four in favour of a series of confidential recommendations with Couns. Landon Johnston, Nathaniel Schmidt, Raj Dhaliwal and Myke Atkinson opposed.
Farkas describes the move as a “natural transition of leadership” ahead of a new four-year budget.
Duckworth will remain on the job until the end of December to oversee the completion of the Bearspaw feeder main replacement project.
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There has been a growing sentiment amongst a group of city councillors that a change is needed in the city’s senior leadership after a critical city water line ruptured for the second time in less than two years.
An independent panel tasked with reviewing the circumstances that led up to the pipe’s original failure in June 2024 found systemic issues with the management of the city’s water system dating back two decades, including repeated deferred inspections and gaps in oversight and governance.
“We’ve heard a lot in these reports about culture, about a culture change,” Ward 13 Coun. McLean said at the time. “If you want culture to change, maybe it has to start at the top.”
Although a vote on Duckworth’s future didn’t take place in January, council did approve a series of recommendations aimed at tightening up the measures and standards of him as part of his upcoming performance review.
Duckworth described his planned departure as mutual and a transition that came after months of discussions.
Prior to his appointment as the city’s chief administrative officer, Duckworth served as the City of Calgary’s general manager of Utilities and Environmental Protection.
He also held senior leadership roles in Vancouver and Kamloops.
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