The contentious appointment of Mayor Sam Katz’s long-time friend, Phil Sheegl, as the head of Winnipeg’s public service has raised the ire of opposition city councillors who now claim that they were kept in the dark during the hiring process.

“He’s completely unknown to us all,” said Daniel McIntyre Coun. Harvey Smith, adding that he was not given a resume or any other list of qualifications in the lead-up to the council vote that ultimately appointed Sheegl as Winnipeg’s new chief administrative officer (CAO).

“I was given nothing and other councillors weren’t given anything, either.”

After former CAO Glen Laubenstein retired in late 2010, city hall commissioned consulting firm Meyers Norris Penny (MNP) to begin a nationwide search for a replacement.

After reportedly reviewing over 40 applicants nationwide, MNP provided a short-list of candidates to council’s executive policy committee (EPC), which includes the mayor and six city councillors friendly to the mayor.

The short-list provided by MNP included Sheegl, a former real estate developer and Arizona-based pharmaceutical mogul, who has been friends with Sam Katz for 20 years.

Sheegl served more than three years as the director of property, planning and development and deputy CAO before being hired as the new CAO in an 11-5 council vote on May 25.

Smith, along with Councillors Wyatt, Orlikow, Gerbasi and Eadie voted against Sheegl’s appointment.

Smith claims these councillors, who do not sit on EPC, voted against the committee’s recommendation because they were given no information about Sheegl’s career before he became the director of property, planning and development.

Although Orlikow expressed concerns about the process in the spring, he declined an interview with The Uniter.

Brian Kelcey, former budget advisor to Katz, believes the city could have been more transparent in Sheegl’s appointment.

“Generally speaking, transparency is a wonderful tool for stomping out suspicions,” he said.

“I’m not saying that there are necessarily problematic conflicts as a result of Sam (Katz) and Phil (Sheegl’s) well-known friendship. … I am saying that it is totally predictable that people would think there are conflicts.”

Kelcey believes that city councillors should have been given a resume and a clear justification from members of EPC as to why they had chosen Sheegl as the most qualified candidate.

He also believes the mayor, in order to avoid conflict of interest claims, should have recused himself from the hiring process.

“We all know that the decision (to recommend Sheegl to council) was made in a closed door meeting and the only way for the mayor to have removed any question of his own relationship with Sheegl influencing that debate, was for him to not have been in the room at all,” Kelcey said.

Although vague on his private sector experience, Sheegl defends both his record as a public servant as well as his long-time friendship with Katz.

“I’m not going to sit here and take credit for everything that’s gone on in the city over the last four years, but there’s a lot of great things going on in Winnipeg and I like to think that I was a big part of that,” he said.

Sheegl highlights his involvement in the IKEA development, the new Winnipeg Blue Bombers stadium deal at the University of Manitoba and the upcoming expansion of the Winnipeg Convention Centre as some of his greatest accomplishments as a public servant.

Sheegl also outlined an extensive hiring process that included two interviews with MNP and two with EPC, emphasizing that the mayor played a role but that it was ultimately his experience and management style that earned him the position.

“It’s no secret that mayor Katz and I are good friends,” he said, adding that the public service should be on the same page as the mayor and city council.

“And it works well for the citizens and politicians of Winnipeg.”

Published in Volume 66, Number 2 of The Uniter (September 8, 2011)