GUYSBOROUGH — The Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) has hired a recruiting firm to lead its search for a new chief administrative officer (CAO), with public advertising expected to begin “within the next couple of weeks.”
That’s according to Warden Paul Long, responding to The Journal’s inquiries last week regarding the status, transparency and timeline of the process to replace outgoing CAO Barry Carroll, who has announced plans to retire at the end of 2025.
“At a special public council meeting held July 21, 2025, Council passed a motion to hire KBRS at a cost of $33,000 plus HST,” Long said, referring to the executive search firm formerly known as Knightsbridge Robertson Surrette.
Long confirmed that “internal candidates will have the opportunity to apply once they see the job advertisement... We expect KBRS to start advertising within the next couple of weeks.”
Carroll, 64, who began a phased retirement in 2023, told The Journal last November that he expected to be fully retired by the end of this year. At the time, he also indicated that council would likely begin considering recruitment options in the second half of 2025 – a timeline now in motion.
In an interview with the newspaper in June, Long described Carroll – who has served as the MODG’s top staffer since 2006 and who received the Honorary Life Membership Award from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators on May 29 – as a “transformative” leader.
Over his nearly two decades with the MODG, he said, Carroll played a lead role in advancing major public infrastructure projects, recreation expansions, emergency preparedness, and business development across the region. More recently, Long noted, Carroll helped position the municipality as a provincial and national player in renewable energy.
Reflecting on the CAO’s role, Carroll said in his 2024 interview with The Journal, “you are the chief advisor to council. You oversee all the operations of the municipality on a day-to-day basis. Council is responsible for making policy and adopting budgets. And it’s the CAO’s job to carry out council’s wishes.”
According to Long, the municipality plans to appoint a new CAO following the completion of the KBRS-led selection process. Asked whether that would include an open public competition, Long did not provide details beyond confirming that the search firm would post a job advertisement in the coming weeks. He did not elaborate on whether council has established additional criteria or frameworks to guide candidate selection.
Until then, Carroll remains in the role. “The current CAO has day-to-day authority through to the end of December,” Long said, adding: “We also have a very experienced staff that are able to deal with any situations that arise on days when the CAO is offsite, which has always been the case ... The key to our ongoing success has been the teamwork that exists within staff and council, something that the new CAO will appreciate.”
The expected start date is in January 2026.
