Cleaning out the offices at city hall

As we reported last week, there are some more changes happening at Prince Rupert City Hall as yet another senior civil servant takes his leave from the North Coast.

The Daily News caught up to the developments with an interesting piece on the departure of the City’s Corporate Administrator, Tom Ireland in yesterday’s paper. It recounted his many tasks while in the service of the city and also took a look at the challenges ahead for the city in filling his shoes at City Hall.

Quotes in the article leave a little bit of room for reading between the lines, from Ireland himself who describes how he came to his decision, and from the Mayor who suggests that there may be a need to boost the level of pay for senior civil servants in the city in order to attract quality candidates.

Of course one wonders if there is any co-relation between the recent re-hiring of Gord Howie, a hiring that required an increase in the rated pay scale for the position and the departure of Ireland who left for more money at Duncan. Was Ireland offered more money to stay in Rupert before making a decision? Considering the mayor is hinting that we will have to pay more to attract a new candidate, one assumes that was the case, but you never know. Did he feel that there was no further growth for his career here? That too could have been a determining factor in his decision to move on.

The article also recounts the number of departures from City Hall in recent years, a situation that now will have seen all but one of the senior positions vacated over the last five years. Is there any smoke or fire there, or is it just the way the world of municipal corporate administration works these days?

Ireland pointed out that the positions in Prince Rupert offer more challenges than your usual BC municipality, which normally deals only with roads, water, sewers and some social services. Here as he points out you at one time or another could have been running a golf course, a ferry, a campground, airport etc. Maybe he just wanted a change from the seemingly ongoing crisis management of running the city the last ten years or so.

As he packs up the boxes and takes those twenty four years of memories with him, as in any organization that sees a long time employee suddenly change locations, he leaves a few things for Podunkians to ponder about the dynamics at city hall.

The Daily News article is provided below in our usual Podunkicized fashion.

LONG TIME CITY BUREAUCRAT SET TO MOVE ON
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Pages One and Three

It’s the last week of work for one of Prince Rupert’s longest serving civil servants.

Corporate Administrator Tom Ireland, who has held the role for “24 years, seven months, 14 days” has accepted a new post as Duncan’s city administrator.

“New challenges, fresh start, new environment,” said Ireland of the reason’s behind the move. “I think a change is good, I’ve been giving it some thought. It was a really, really tough decision.

“I’ve only got four to nine years left (in my career) and it may be time to be the leader of the team as opposed to just a member of the team.”

Ireland will be leaving the only home he’s ever known after moving from place to place for most of his youth.

“I lived no longer than two years on average before I came here, I lived in 14 different places, so this is the closest thing I’ve had to a home,” he said. “It’s beautiful, the fishing is great and I love it, the people are great.”

Thanks to his work, acting in the stead of past city administrator’s over the last 15 years and the complexities of the City of Prince Rupert, the soon-to-be former Rupertite said he’s well-prepared for the challenge of a new community.

“We have probably the greatest variety of services of any one locale that I am aware of from boat launches to ferries to golf courses to airports – you name it,” he said.

“Most municipalities are just roads, water, sewer and some social services.”

Meanwhile, the city is wishing Ireland the best and trying to view the move as an opportunity for them, despite the fact they know it will be difficult to replace him.

“He’ll be impossible to replace,” said Mayor Herb Pond. “His skills, his background, his knowledge, his understanding of municipal administration and law. He has guided the city of Prince Rupert very safely over many years.”

The loss of Ireland is the latest in a string of senior managers leaving.

In September 2004, Chief Financial Officer Corien Speaker left to pursue an opportunity in Elkford. The next year Lucky Butterworth, manger of financial services, was hired by Parksville. Public Works head Gordon Cox retired in 2005 and city administrator Victor Kumar took a position in Grand Forks. The only remaining senior city post not to see a recent change is director of engineering services, held by Bob Thompson.

“It’s always a concern as its happening, the marketplace is very competitive,” said Pond. “It used to be a decade ago, people would fast-track their careers by going to a small community, but today for a variety of places they don’t have to leave the Lower Mainland if they don’t want.”
Unlike the lengthy and expensive process the city underwent to find a replacement for Kumar, they will not hire a consultant this time around. However, as Prince Rupert has historically paid its senior manager’s less than the going rate in the province, it may require a larger salary to attract good staff.

“You get what you pay for,” said Pond. “I’ve made no bones about it … our management team are a couple of grades behind the play scale. The sad truth is that while we have a hard time affording bringing them up, and we’ve been trying to do that a little bit, the reality is the second they’re gone we’re faced with the reality that we really do have to bump it up.

“That’s not fair, it’s really not a good way to be operating, but it’s where we’ve been at. That being said, there are people out there and they move for all kinds of reasons. In the end, it’s not going to be money that makes the difference it’s going to be someone that sees the right opportunity.”

City Administrator Gord Howie is already on the hunt for a replacement, but Pond said it will probably be many months before someone can be found.