There is something very wrong with severance packages. Who is responsible for these windfalls? There are people who go from one job to another constantly working the system, often doing very poor service.
It creates dishonesty and palm greaseing. A normal procedure is for an employee to receive 2 weeks pay upon layoff. We have a big problem people, all through the governing system incl. city hall, we have people working the system. Who are they? Good question, most perhaps, we have a lot of homeless, same time we have a lot overpaid people who feel very important I might say.We need to get rid of the severance system.

I was wondering what was going to happen to her….

It’s simple. CUPE won the election, and James doesn’t fit with that.

That didn’t take long.

I called it….lol

Another middle finger from Ms Green to the City. She and Ms James were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumber. No shock at all that this has occurred. It is just another point that when you vote, you not only elect that person, but as this shows, you get their friends and baggage with that vote. Good f-ing riddance to both of them. A true black mark on this wonderful City’s history. Thank God neither are here for our 100th Birthday or the Games as our representitives

Wonder how much Ian will miss her?

There are a few more in this city administration that should be sent packing very soon also.

It payes to be a city manager.

$212,000 for ist year wages.
$142,000 for 67% of the second year.
$ 10,000 for vehicle allowance.
$ 25,000 for moveing expense.
$106,000 for 6months severance
$ 35,000 for 2 more months severance.
Total for one and two thirds years …….$530,000. Wow.

That’s good they canned her even if it came with a price.. I’m sure they’ll recoup that later

Prof: So did I.
Oneman: Severance packages in government and more in private industry has been going on a very long time, that’s how to attract (well, sometimes) the best person for the job. Where the heck is Bates when you need him?
As far as your calculating goes, try again….. LOL

Well it sure bit us in the ass this time grizzley hu?

‘Asked again if it is just Beth James who is affected or are there any more, Hall says “can’t comment on that.”

And why can Hall not comment on that, we pay their salaries and hiding behind FOI requests is a slimy way of doing things.

Why would council need to be informed she was on admin leave – wouldn’t they be the ones to start this process in the first place?

It’s frustrating that James and her ilk see these positions as nothing more than an opportunity to further their personal ambitions and need for power. And it matters not at all to her that theses self-serving behaviours are financed by the citizens of our community – the “little people” (maybe she and Shari will go shoe shopping with the severance money – remember Leona Helmsley and Imelda Marcos?)

I imagine she’s already on her way back to the southwest corner of the province where she’ll shudder off the memories of her time here in purgatory while regaling her cronies with redneck stories over a latte…

As did everyone else in town, Grizzly 2 and Professional.
Wow, you’re geniuses.

Cupe won the election? Hall is a cupe member.. JB you certainly hate unions and will twist anything you can to show it. Complaining on how much the city workers make…. How much would they get if they quit…sweet FA. This chick is walking away with huge money and that’s okay to you.

6 month guaranteed severance is a bit high, especially when it sounds like it was guaranteed, meaning that is she left the job on her own accord or if she was terminated, This means that the person who hired her was essentially giving her a deferred signing bonuses. For most public workers severance is for when people lose their employment as a result of a lay-off and not for resignation or being fired.

“And why can Hall not comment on that, we pay their salaries and hiding behind FOI requests is a slimy way of doing things”

=======================

Legal realities. He says something wrong, gets sued and taxpayers are on the hook for more money. Sounds to me like he’s covering the city’s butt, which is what he should be doing. I think it’s also telling that he basically invited the FOI request to be submitted, LOL.

James played a major role in the most recent contract negotiations with the City’s CUPE workers. For once, the City took a tough stand and stood firm in negotiations with CUPE. After all, wage/benefit increases each and every year for the past 28 or 29 years in a row. It was time for the City to stand up to CUPE! They were firm, but not firm enough in some peoples eyes!

Now, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not, we have a Mayor and Council elected by and large by organized labour, CUPE being the most obvious union.

Anyone who believes that the new Mayor and Council is not beholden to CUPE might ask themselves if canning James had less to do with her ability to do her job and more to do with the fact that CUPE wanted her gone!

Interesting times, indeed!

Hart guy, votes don’t have a box you tick that says where you work. How can you prove your statement ?

I know they where voted in by humans. That’s a fact..

I think they where voted by only brown eyed humans is a guess with no facts. See how easy it is.

James played a major role.. So what.. Look how much we have to pay get rid of her.

Ridiculous contract. 30 days of vacation?… $200k salary. Who needs a vehicle allowance when you make $200k?

Severance pay for 18 months of service should be 1 week of pay not half a year.

You missed the point Sheri brought James in as a paid pit bull to do her bidding. James did what she was instructed to do, can, fire, relocate and encourage folks to leave, that where not in the best interests of her lordship.

So she did what she was brought in to do, and she did it very well. Pulling city staffing moral to an all time low. Now that Sheri is no longer in the mix, James decided it was time to get out of Dodge before anything further comes to light (reference to what she has done in City Hall to date).

Who wrote up this employment agreement you ask, well the mayor and the clowns on the previous council is who agreed to the contract and it’s terms. Some one high up has to agree with the pending payroll bill.

Current council and Mayor didn’t see this coming, this was a James thing, she chose to leave before her term was up. Her job for Sheri completed, she can’t retract her fangs and play nice, so time to move on with a health little parting gift.

The fifth floor should become a much more peaceful place in the coming weeks, say bye bye to bad baggage.

There is still 5 people on council that hired her. Suddenly its a CUPE thing ?

In all fairness our recent past few mayors were more pro business than union and they gave us more debt and less service so maybe time for labour to show what they can do.

Kathleen Soltis sure is getting a lot of “on the job” experience. Perhaps council should hire her and save on moving expenses.

minion2014. You don’t normally get severance pay if you resign voluntarily. It’s intended for the situation in which an employee is fired other than for cause. Did James’ contract give her severance even if she resigned?

Shari greens hand picked shill. Shari should pay the severance. Anyone who met Beth once didn’t like her one bit. Think before you vote sheople!

billposer if you read the article it said “Under the terms of her contract with the City James, who began her employment as City Manager on May 1st, 2013, was entitled to receive severance of six month’s salary along with one month per year of service to a maximum 18 months.” Since severance unless defined otherwise is a term to mean an end of a relationship (not termination or lay-off) I would assume one of the parties has terminated the relationship, i think the vagueness of her severance language would allow her to collect the money even if she quit her job.

P Val, so you don’t like my opinion! I can live with that! I seldom agree with your opinion! Funny thing about Opinion sites, eh??

While I’ve got you here, you state: “votes don’t have a box you tick that says where you work.”

Nope, they don’t but it is kind of funny that CUPE would send out notices “suggesting” that when marking their ballots, the human membership should tick Boxes A, B, or C, but not tick Boxes D, E or F!

Like I said before: “Interesting times indeed!”

Ya, well HART GUY. My neighbour said I should vote for Lynn Hall because he was a good school trustee, my paper boy said I should vote for Brian Skakun because he likes dogs……. bla bla bla. Everyone gets to voice their favorite choices, but this is a democratic country and at the end of the day- I will vote for who I want to. Hart Guy, don’t use your critism of Unions to belittle the voters of this city.

minion2014
I don’t think that it is clear that the term “severance” in the contract (assuming that the article is actually quoting and not rephrasing) is to be interpreted in its generic sense rather than as used in labour law. Severance pay is required by the Employment Standards Act, which explicitly says that there is no such requirement if the employee resigns, retires, or is dismissed for cause. It is conceivable that James’ contract calls for a severance payment even in situations in which it is not required by the Act, but it is also quite possible that her contract merely sets the amount of the payment to a level exceeding that required by the Act without changing the conditions under which it is required.

Northern Citizen, I’m very happy that you will vote for who you want to vote for. I always vote for who I want to!! That’s democracy in action.

It is my understanding that CUPE did advise their members as to who their preferred electoral candidates were? If that is in fact what happened, please explain why CUPE would do that? Is that democracy??

PG was in trouble long before Ms. James came along. Nothing changes in city hall until those city workers that have been making the decisions and calling the shots are replaced with qualified people.

Mayor are you listening?

Unions are in all the best paying jobs anywhere in the world. If I had a chance I’d want to in a union job.

People in unions don’t usually make the decisions. People higher up in the decision making line do that so union or no union we’d still be a troubled city.

HART GUY WRITES: It is my understanding that CUPE did advise their members as to who their preferred electoral candidates were? If that is in fact what happened, please explain why CUPE would do that? Is that democracy??

Hart Guy I think you should do your homework. If you contacted Telus, BC Hydro, ICBC, hospital workers, BC Transit, or any other larger corporation and most likely even the smaller companies it is standard practice that you would receive in the mail a ‘suggested list’ of candidates. CUPE would have received this ‘suggested list’ for the past 60 plus years that CUPE has been around….

You could probably have found that out in the privacy act….. lol

Every once in a while, things need to be shaken up a bit! City Hall, the Administration, the CUPE workforce and everything else related to the operations of our city and it’s services were long overdue for a major shake up!

With the past council and with the hiring of Beth James, I had hoped that would happen and to some degree, for better or for worse, it did!

I’m of the opinion that there were certainly issues with the Green/James orchestra, but I’m also certain that there were as many if not far more issues with the previous status quo!

Now, with our new Council led by Lyn Hall and with the exit of Beth James, I wonder if we will simply slip back into the previous status quo!

Hang onto your wallets! Paying Beth James severance package will be just the beginning. There are indeed interesting times ahead!

That’s my opinion!

“It is my understanding that CUPE did advise their members as to who their preferred electoral candidates were? If that is in fact what happened, please explain why CUPE would do that? Is that democracy??”

=====================

That’s actually no different than a group of prominent local business people taking out an add in the PG Citizen, “endorsing” a specific candidate in the hopes that others will bow to their superior knowledge and do the same.

At the end of the day, politicians are elected by people. Different people support different things. That is democracy.

If CUPE was actually voting, then no, it wouldn’t be democracy. The same as if corporations were voting. Hey wait, wasn’t that a balloon that some right wingers were floating at one point int time in recent memory? How anti-democratic . . .

This is not the first time the anti-union posters have voiced their opinions.

If I was the CEO of IPG or NDIT I may take notice of the recent shuffle at City Hall.

There are a few FOI,s out there on the travel expenses of our past mayor and city manager. IPG has some explaining to do as well.

If this is the work of the union they have my full support.

Ii so glad to read ms James had left. I would have lived to read she was fired publicly like many of her victims but at least she is gone. Good on you mayor hall.

Where the hell is Pal on all this great news?
Cheers

This isnt about unions. Its about how corrupt the severance system can get.No one is worth this type of money. Beth James will have received about $500,000 for one and 2/3 years of work with 2…… 30 day holidays. She wasnt even here at times.
I hope this isnt a union thing. It creates ripping the system off . Maybe we need to overhaul this.

If Beth James’ departure is indeed going to cost $500K, then Lyn Hall should be a little more forthcoming about the circumstances and whose decision it was, rather than hiding behind FOI requests.

I hope that 250News will file a FOI for this case and dig up all the dirt surrounding it.

In any case, some people were bent out of shape when business interests were donating to Shari Green’s campaign last election. I will be very interested to see how much CUPE has donated in total to all the candidates. We only know part of the story there. It is currently unknown how much CUPE gave Lyn Hall, and how much that played as a factor in James’ ‘administrative leave’.

Interesting times ahead, and as someone else said, this has the potential to cost a lot more than $500K.

Business interests are funded on their own dime, union interests are funded on mandatory dues. Does everyone see the difference?

Posted on Sunday, January 11, 2015 @ 10:36 AM by JohnnyBelt

If Beth James’ departure is indeed going to cost $500K, then Lyn Hall should be a little more forthcoming about the circumstances and whose decision it was, rather than hiding behind FOI requests.

Give it a rest JB. Its Sunday when this news became public on Friday. Good grief.

Their own dime. That’s a good one. They’re both the same thing and equally as wrong. Both contributions from either business or unions get tax exemption status. Which means that taxpayers foot the bill for both. I’d prefer a system whereby if you garner enough community support in the nomination process, that each campaigner would get access to equal resources to run their campaign with. That way there would be a level playing field and nobody would have their hands out after the election, inviting political corruption. I consider corporate sponsorship nominees from business and unions as political interference in the democratic process. To think that the donors don’t expect something in return for their support is insane.

I would place money that the conversation on the 5th floor went something like this Coles Notes version:

Hall “I think it is time you left”

James “Fine”

Then all that is left is to work out the details and as there was an employment contract in place it would be be a fairly simple matter. I would guess that James signed up for a 5 year term and Hall(the city) wants to cancel the contract a year and a half in so must pay the severance outlined in that contract that was signed by both parties.

I agree with Hart Guy and others that a shakeup was long overdue on the 5th floor. Here is one example why

When Sssstoltz chaired the F&A committee the question was asked why Prince George pays more than 30% more for asphalt than other similar sized cities in the province. His response was that the other cities team up with other levels of government to get a better unit price because of bigger order and although it was to late to change that year’s order they would try the following year. Next year same question and same response with not a peep from city manager at the time(Bates)

When James came in one of the people who was relieved of their duties was manager of Supply Services(Bone) and rightly so. Even if he was not the one to responsible to draw up the supply contract and arrange with the province to get best price for the asphalt as department head he was ultimately accountable for the hundreds of thousands of dollars that was needlessly spent by the city going alone.

Keep hearing about this shake up.. Well James was there just over a year.. Not much of a shake up. New mayor and councellors is more of a minor nudge. A minor shuffle here and there is all I have seen.

Next city manager will likely be a spineless beaurocrat with a weak handshake who is scared to step on anyones toes or ruffle any feathers. Every decision through out the day must be concensus from pb or jam on the morning toast to Dave or Jimmy at bedtime and everything in between.

As for holding department heads accountable, can’t do that it might hurt their last feeling.

But a nice guy. Deja Vu all over again

treadmill sparrow