Sheila Bassi-Kellett to take over as City of Yellowknife's SAO

The City of Yellowknife will soon have a new top bureaucrat, as Sheila Bassi-Kellett has been tapped to take over the role of Senior Administrative Officer in March.

The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon by Yellowknife mayor Mark Heyck in a Facebook post. In the post, Heyck says that Bassi-Kellett will officially assume her new role on March 6, 2017, after being appointed by city council in the new year.

"Ms. Bassi-Kellett brings a wealth of executive and government expertise to the position of SAO, having worked in both the municipal and territorial public sectors," the post read. "We look forward to working with Ms. Bassi-Kellett in her new role as SAO for the City of Yellowknife."

Bassi-Kellett previously served in the Government of the Northwest Territories as deputy minister of human resources, before being dismissed under unclear circumstances in 2014. She most recently ran her own consulting service in Yellowknife.

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She will take over the post from Dennis Kefalas, who served as SAO for nearly four years and will remain in the post until Bassi-Kellett takes over in March. The City announced in September that Kefalas will then return to his previous role as director of public works and engineering.