P.G’s Loss Often Major Gain for Others
The recent announcement that former Prince George Fire Chief John Lane has landed a position as Fire Cief of Winnipeg, a city ten times the size of PG , prompts one to question City Hall's practises. Lane is afterall, not the only person to move up the ladder after leaving the city employ. Being appointed the Fire Chief in a city the size of Winnipeg suggests that he had something going for him.
Officially, the City says Lane "retired" from his post in Prince George. We will have to wait for information to surface in the financial statement of the city this June to see how much that retirement cost.
We also will get a look to see who else who "retired" that the City continues to cut a check for.
Marco Fornari, "retired", from the city in late 2011 but received $111,944.39 in 2012. Marco was Manager of the Utilities Division.
Former head of IPG Tim McEwen was scooped up by the Province with a few days after being "retired " by mutual agreement from IPG. McEwen took on the role of working on the billion dollar projects for the Province. Not a bad gig seeing as how he had put this region in the spotlight with his vision for the North.
Derek Bates, former City Manager, opted not to renew his contract with the City. Although he has never spoken publicly about it, there were plenty of buzzings that he was not happy with the direction the City was taking. So, he gave his notice, included his vacation time, and was out eight weeks before the actual expiration of his contract .
Suffice to say, Prince George has lost some very good people who went on to some very top level positions after we felt they didn't serve us well . It raises the question of who is making the call of who is good and who isn't?
I'm Meisner and that's one man's opinion.
Comments
Ummm, Ben…John Lane was really not a “keeper”. He may have actually done some harm here in PG, and is likely to do the same in Winterpeg. Just sayin’.
If these people don’t “fit” into the plans of a few who seem to run this city for their own benefit, I guess the “city” feels like they aren’t serving us that well.
I also think that if a person who quits a job, (retires) and goes on to another job right away, should have their severance package closely looked at.
Didn’t Lane ‘retire’ around the same time some firefighters were being investigated for possession of stolen property? I may have missed it, but I never did hear if charges were ever laid in that case.
This all goes to show that ‘politics’ is such a different world than the real world.
Most of the people who left did so after the last election and after the hiring of the new City Manager. It is not unusual for a new administration to get rid of some top people and bring in their own.
I would say that this is what happened with the City Managers job, the IPG job, purchasing managers job and perhaps some others.
The old adage that a new broom sweeps clean. The problem with this type of thinking is that you can lose some good people (which I don’t think happened in this case) and there is a huge cost involved in early retirement, severance, etc;
We need some stability at City Hall, and we need them to show us where they have saved any money for the past three years. This being an election year, we wait with bated breath to here of Mayor Greens accomplishments.
I don’t think this is a case of PG loosing some good talent, but rather a case of PG always hiring for top positions people that don’t ever plan to make PG their home for the long term, and thus are using their position here as a spring board to new and better things in some other community as soon as an appropriate opportunity arises. The City Manager position is no different.
How does the saying go… birds of a feather flog together.. or something like that.
I think we could pay a lot less and hire locally and get better results. The high priced talent and high priced severance packages don’t mean better value for the city IMO.
“I don’t think this is a case of PG loosing some good talent, but rather a case of PG always hiring for top positions people that don’t ever plan to make PG their home for the long term”
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One could say the same thing about Kamloops, Kelowna, Abbotsford, Saskatoon or Halifax. People go where the opportunities are and/or where they enjoy living.
Opportunities are largely dictated by the local economy and job market, whereas quality of life is often dictated by the approach a city takes in making itself a place that people want to live in and raise their family.
Cities can definitely influence the former, but they can virtually control the latter. The question is do they know what people want and do they know how to build it?
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