Calgary CAO: Top executives depart amid push for city culture change

[CALGARY, AB] — The City of Calgary announced today it is parting ways with Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth and launching a formal search for his replacement, a transition Mayor Jeromy Farkas framed on X as aligning leadership with Calgary's push toward two million residents.

The Price Tag on "Structured Transition"

Duckworth's exit comes with a 16-month severance package. At his 2025 annual salary of $410,000, that works out to roughly $546,667 in public money — paid to the one person City Council, under the Municipal Government Act, is solely responsible for hiring, managing, and firing.

That accountability loop is worth sitting with. Council approved a nearly 36% increase to the top end of the CAO salary range in April 2025, raising the ceiling to $475,000. That decision was made behind closed doors, drawing criticism for a lack of transparency. Now the same body is writing a half-million-dollar exit cheque.

Two Departures, One Hollowed-Out Executive Floor

Duckworth won't be leaving alone. Chief Operating Officer Stuart Dalgleish is also retiring, with his final day set for June 12, 2026. Calgary's two most senior administrators are walking out the door simultaneously, leaving a $4.6 billion operating budget and a city mid-growth-spurt without its top two managers.

The timing is not incidental. In December 2025, the Bearspaw south feeder main ruptured — the second such break in 18 months. An independent review panel found a pattern of neglect in water infrastructure and, according to the context dossier, contributed directly to calls for a "culture change" in administration.

The Dissenting Math That Didn't Land

The friction around the executive suite predates the pipe breaks. During the 2024 mid-cycle budget adjustments, Councillors Sharp and McLean moved to cut the $6.5 million Chief Executive function budget by $2.5 million, arguing the CAO and COO roles overlapped. Council defeated the motion 9-6.

That vote now reads differently. The two roles it was meant to consolidate are both vacant.

What "Alignment" Actually Means

The official language from Mayor Farkas's post points to aligning leadership with a new four-year Council term and budget cycle. That's a reasonable governance rationale. A new council sets new priorities; a new CAO executes them. Clean in theory.

In practice, the incoming CAO will inherit a water infrastructure system under scrutiny, a public that watched a pipe burst twice in the same spot, and a salary range — $391,666 to $475,000 — negotiated in a closed session by the same Council now conducting the search.

The recruitment process is open. Whether the culture it's meant to change will actually follow the outgoing executives out the door is the question Calgary's next administrator will have to answer — probably before the next pipe does.