The city's communications manager quits, the bylaw manager is fired and the mayor is left in the dark
And Mr. Beefy Goodness vs Mr. PG
So I was actually going to be sending an email out today indicating I would be taking the week off because I’m pretty busy but enough happened here that it’s worth noting.
Whether you get any more newsletters this week is a bit of a guess. However, budget talks are happening so… maybe? But don’t be alarmed if it’s not for a few days.
Also, an observation: on Saturday I was browsing Instagram and I noticed that post after post was local restaurants saying they were closed.
What was happening?? I have been told that restaurants often have their staff holiday parties in January because they are so busy in December so it might be that but… I just thought it was interesting.
Anyways, to the main topic: two stories via the Prince George Citizen (again, how nice it is to have a staffed-up newspaper back in action).
City's communications director tenders resignation
This one is worth noting because Julie Rogers is the person largely responsible for the city’s jokey, plain-spoken tone. I know it’s had mixed reviews, including from me, but on balance I am a fan of a city that talks to it’s people like people, in plain language, over one that is buried in bureaucratese. I also think the tone has really hit its stride over the last couple of years, which I know is both an overall team effort but also was very much pioneered by Rogers. I first came across her when she did the comms job for the city of Fort St. John and, not coincidentally, at that time Fort St. John was the favourite city in my beat in terms of getting comment from the city because it would always be something understandable and not something I had to translate.
The news of this departure comes to us via the Citizen, who seems to have learned it through Mayor Simon Yu, who seems to have learned it through city manager Walter Babicz (as city manager, Babicz is responsible for all other city employees — council is simply responsible for Babicz, which we’ll come to in a second). Rogers did not give the Citizen a reason for her departure, nor did Yu indicate he knew why she was leaving. I won’t speculate, either, but I do know her work has been noticed on a national level so there’s likely ample opportunities out there. But again, we’ll wait and see if we get a reason that is publicly shared, if that’s something she wants out there.
Anyways, here’s the second one.
Prince George terminates manager of bylaw services
Again, this seems to come to the Citizen via an interview with mayor Simon Yu.
By email, a city spokesperson confirmed that “Charlotte Peters is no longer employed at the City of Prince George,” but declined to comment further or provide an interview on the subject.
However, Mayor Simon Yu told The Citizen in a phone interview that he first heard about Peters’ departure from his fellow members of council as well as rumours floating around town.
“Based on the information I got from my fellow councillors, it was termination,” Yu said. “It’s not voluntary, it wasn’t exactly the way she wanted to leave.”
He said he discussed Peters’ departure with city manager Walter Babicz after hearing about it from other sources but was not told the reasons behind it.
“The bylaw dismissal never ever came up because I believe, in (Babicz’) opinion, that’s administration’s employee,” Yu said.
“Mayor and council, we only have one employee, which is (Babicz). Therefore, it’s not my business, right? That’s how I took it, because I was never in any way informed about Charlotte’s departure, other than hearing from my councillors and from rumours.”
Not everyone feels that way, though. Here’s PG Daily News editor Bill Phillips:
Babicz absolutely has the authority to terminate an employee. In fact, it’s part of his job.
When I was in the corporate world, I had the authority to hire and fire. On the couple of occasions that I made the decision to fire an employee, I certainly gave my boss a heads-up.
It’s part of a good working relationship.
I’ll stress it again – Babicz, knowing it was a high-profile firing, should have given Yu a heads-up. He didn’t so we do have to wonder how good the working relationship is between the two.
On Facebook, Councillor Brian Skakun also weighed in on hese departures:
There has been a couple news stories recently about the City of PG losing two high profile employees. First of all I think it's very unfortunate some people will take cheap shots at them for whatever their personal grievances are. When any employee is no longer employed I say leave them alone. Are their jobs funded by the taxpayer yes, but other than that throwing personal insults at them is garbage in my opinion, especially in these types of situations. I doubt any of these keyboard warriors would be doing the same thing if it was a friend or family member.
The question has also come up recently and that is, does gender play a role in overall workplace satisfaction, promotion and such with the City of Prince George? In my opinion it does. Is that in line with other large corporations be it gov't or private sector? I think so. If you have the qualifications and don't kiss the ring then lets level the playing field.
I've been with the City of PG for 22 years and have seen a male dominated council and upper management structure and that’s not right. If you have the qualifications and willingness to do the job, then you should at the very least, get a chance to move up in our corporation or political structure. My opinion only, thanks.
Anyways, I doubt we’ll hear one way or another why the bylaw manager was fired — we don’t tend to get public reasons behind HR decisions. Again, though, I will note that a bylaw manager has the ability to set the tone of relationships — in this case, bylaw is the one out interacting with people on the street level and in many ways shaping the relationship and perception the city has of the rest. So it will be intersting to see who comes into the role next and how that relationship changes.
News roundup:
Caledonia Nordic Ski Club biathletes Turner, Simons top the North American charts in Italy.
4th Avenue building reduced to rubble as crews began cleanup.
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Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.
The trench private event was for Corlanes Christmas party :) not sure about the rest!