Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
by James Woods
The legislative press gallery was thrown into a, well, let's just call it a tizzy, on Monday morning when reporters checked the orders in council from the previous week's cabinet meeting.
Included was a bombshell - a letter of agreement saying Ed Carleton had been named chief of staff to Premier Brad Wall and that he was getting a pay raise to $9,017 a month.
Carleton, Wall's childhood friend, has been executive of the Saskatoon cabinet office since the Saskatchewan Party took office in 2007. As well, he is a former University of Saskatchewan Huskies linebacker who has served as defensive co-ordinator for the football team since 1993.
Reporters were perplexed by the news because there had been no hint that current chief of staff Joe Donlevy - one of the premier's most relied-on advisers - was planning on stepping down. And Carleton, based in Saskatoon, would not have been viewed as a likely person to fill the post in any case.
But things got even more confusing when questions started flying at the government and no one in communications seemed to know anything about the major personnel shift.
Finally, Reg Downs, the premier's senior adviser, was able to set the record straight - both Carleton and Donlevy are staying in the same place.
The problem was the letter's "somewhat strange wording" Carleton was to be chief of staff, but of the Saskatoon cabinet office, and the change in title was to better reflect his duties.
And the pay raise? That, according to Downs, was a mistake. The change in title was to be accompanied by the same salary as before - $8,202 a month - and the letter has to be amended.
Reporters naturally wondered whether Carleton's raise would have gone through if they hadn't asked about the order.
But the government maintains somebody would have caught it.
SP
