City officials say goodbye to a longtime veteran
After 41 years and 22 offices with the city, public services commissioner Karen Charlton retiring
Retiring public services commissioner Karen Charlton is being lauded for her work in the city’s largest, most diverse division, with colleagues and council members saying she brought her personal touch to its management.
Charlton’s last day after a 41-career at city hall is Friday.
“I grew up professionally in the organization, this has been my employer, and it hasn’t always been easy, but I’m very grateful,” she told reporters after sitting through her final city council meeting in the commissioner’s chair on March 18.
Charlton joined the city on July 7, 1977 — a date denoted in all lucky sevens — beginning with the city’s childcare services, which were then located in the Veiner Centre. She’s also been in charge of the cultural centre, the 9-1-1 dispatch centre, and other positions in the division that oversees parks, rec facilities, transit, the fire department and other programming.
“I’ve had 22 office spaces, so I can move in a heartbeat,” she joked. “A lot of the positions were challenging and outside my comfort zone.
“I really like change and I’ve had lots of opportunity to challenge myself.”
She has no immediate plans for her retirement, though Coun. Julie Friesen told an open council meeting in a tribute that Charlton will find something and do a wonderful job at it.
As for parting advice, Charlton sees budget challenges and community expectations — both in programming and consultations — as hurdles for the public services division.
Brian Mastel, previously the corporate services commissioner, moves to oversee the public services division starting April 1.
Charlton became head of the largest municipal division by workforce and budget in 2013, replacing Ron Webb as commissioner.
At that time, former city councillor Graham Kelly noted her exemplary record and career as a signal that the city — both the town and city hall — could produce such talent internally.
“When the city was in the daycare business, it was widely regarded as one of the very best (systems) in the world,” Kelly said this week. “When she moved to emergency response dispatch, it was only two in the world that had that level of accreditation. “That’s largely due to Karen.” Kelly, who taught Charlton at Medicine Hat High School in the late 1960s, had decades of professional contact with Charlton, and not only with the city, where Kelly long chaired the public services committee.
Charlton served four terms as a public school board trustee, half that time as chair, essentially meaning Kelly, then a principal, worked for her.
“I’d call her boss and she’d call me boss,” said Kelly. “We had some fun with it.”
Charlton, who recalls the building of city hall at its current location, notes the scope and expectations of the job have evolved.
“It’s the largest department, and we spend the most and make the least, but we’re the public face of services in the city,” she said.
“(Public service) is a very noble thing to do, but a difficult thing to do ... It’s all about diplomacy and collaboration, which are exhausting things to do, but very important to building community capacity.”
Mayor Ted Clugston singled her out at the recent State of the City Address noting that whenever he needed picking up, he could count on Charlton, who’s petite and quite kindly, to provide him with an encouraging “Suck it up, buttercup!”