This is a huge loss for UNBC as van Adrichem knows more about UNBC than anyone on their campus.

Rob’s departure may be indicative of the dire situation at UNBC, a university that is now failing badly. Shrinking enrollments, gross mismanagement by their top administrators, and the loss of credibility with UNBC’s faculty and staff. UNBC’s very future may be in jeopardy.

I agree that UNBC has some serious financial problems, and has had for a number of years, and I think that Adrichem leaving may be a way for them to save some money.

Perhaps someone in the **know** can tell us if UNBC intends to fill his position. Somehow I doubt it.

We had a similar situation a number of years ago when the Airport was doing some downsizing and Mike Davis left to join the City. Seems to me at that time they did not fill his position. He later left the City to work for the Winter Games.

So we now have two (2) instances where due to downsizing or other reasons people have left a job, and they have been picked up by the City.

To me this is more than a coincidence, in fact it looks like the position of Director of External Relations was established for this individual. Who knows???

Was the position posted across Canada to get the best Candidate??? Lets get some more information on what the hell is going on here.

Its pretty obvious that anything that Andrichem can do as Director of External Relations, could easily be done, and should be done by the highly overrated and over paid Initiative’s Prince George.

The media release states that Andrichm will be working WITH the Citys Corporate Communication Specialist, Mike Kellett. Not for.

If we have gone this long without this position, and considering that City Hall also has financial problems, perhaps this is the **first serious mistake** made by the new Mayor and Council.

We can no longer afford to have all these high rollers on the payroll, being paid for with tax dollars.

Time to get serious like Quesnel, and start issuing walking papers.

Great addition for the city but hopefully he’s replacing someone not just adding a position at city hall.

Palopu … completely agree

Some good points Palopu. I don’t know whether van Adrichem is filling a vacant city position or if his hiring will just add to our city tax burden.

Happy people don’t leave good jobs unless something special awaits them. This departure appears to be more than just money.

Just wait till Pal gets through with the city and for sure he’ll be out of a job. We know that Pal loves the new mayor.
cheer’

First we cry about hiring out of town and now we’re wondering if hiring locally might not be the best option.
Well, which will it be? Or do some people just need something to cry about all the time?

Director of External Relations? This sounds more like a “Green” initiative.. hire a new spin doctor to cover up what isnt keeping the tax payers happy. If the City were being operated correctly, then there would be no need for someone to handle external relations..that is the job for Mayor and council. If by some chance the City had money just laying around and decided to use it for this new position, then maybe it couldve gone towards something to make us feel like we were getting real results for our tax dollar..like pour that money into more paving or retrofitting our disintegrating water/sewer systems or….. hey we could hire someone to convince the public that they are getting all that they can out of the money we gouge out of them on property taxes.. Hire someone to pick up the b#llsh_t that spews out of the ivory tower.

Certainly hope to hear that at least ONE council member thinks that this position is unnecessary. Nothing against Mr. Van Adrichem, just against the wisdom of spending more money on a position that does not involve improving our town.

Give More. I agree that it is not necessary to hire out of towners when you have qualified people interested in the job in the City.

I merely asked the question as to whether or not this position was posted across Canada to get the best qualified people, because that is the line that we usually get from the City.

I don’t know whether the position was posted at all, and if not why not, and if so, how many qualified people applied for the job.

My sense is that this was a direct hire, and if so then I suggest that the City is out of line.

We really cannot afford to continue to play these sort of games with tax dollars. We need to re-organize management at City Hall with a view of reducing the cost.

The Vancouver Sun Public Sector Data Base for salaries shows that

Rob van Andrichem for the period 2013/14 was paid an annual salary of

$170,277.00.

That salary at City Hall would be about the fourth highest.

So is he going to get paid more than his old position, or is he going to take a hit, by moving to the City.

Why would he leave such a great job in the first place???

More to this than meets the eye.

Seems the City will pay van Andrichem $159,541.00 so he will be earning $10,736.00 less than he did in 2013/14.

So, why is he leaving, that is the million dollar question.

Is it because of financial problems at UNBC??? Has he basically had enough and decided to leave even though it will cost him money. Is he going to be replaced at UNBC???

Why would the City be having a discussion with him about working for the City. When did the City decide that they needed a Director of External Relations, and why take an employee away from UNBC????

We need to get more information on what is actually taking place here, there is much more to this than a simple change of jobs.

“UNBC’s very future may be in jeopardy.”

Would make an awesome women’s treatment center no?

So the city are paying a guy full time, to spread propaganda and ‘connect’ with the population? Worked for Hitler, so who knows.

Actually, I think this is the right thing for council to do. They need to reconnect with the community, residents, taxpayers…. Just as long as his recommendations and relationships are taken seriously by all city departments, especially planning department, and not treated like the OCP where it continues to change at a whim of a developer.

No job at city hall like this one should have a salary of more than $75,000. saw him on the odd commercial for UNBC and with the shape UNBC is in I am guessing he didn’t do his job there…so why hire him ?

Taxes keep going up, utility bills as well. Do we need someone to spin these increases up to make them more palatable? That seems a pretty healthy wage to tell us taxpayers what is in our best interest , crankypants husband says we should spend this on dandelion control, not a spin doctor

So just what is the job?

Yep, overpaid and undertalented.

Rob may want to work for an organization that has post-retirement benefits as UNBC doesn’t have any? Or, it may be a moral issue. He may have grown tired of spinning media lies for UNBC’s useless executives? You can only deceive people for so long.

“Mayor Lyn Hall and Council have identified the need to reconnect with the community as a key strategic priority,”

Did you read the part that says ‘Mayor Lyn Hall and Council’?

That sounds like they all agreed on it.

I don’t think a position like this one should be paid even half what van Adrichem will be getting. I thought he was grossly over paid with what he made at UNBC as well. Its no wonder why all levels of government claim they are always short on funds when they have outrageous pay scales like this.

Disgusting amount of tax payers money being used so they can try and convince us what a good job they are doing.

I think I might have to agree with PVal on this one!

I agree… I think a position like this would have a max salary of 76k. And I really do not understand how mayor and council and the city believe it should be anymore than that. It is disgusting!

Of course the university will have to pay him severance pay
Its all about the money. We have a socialist klicky bunch in our fair city. They keep hireing friends and family. No regard to the taxpayer.
In the meantime, the homeless line up gets longer and longer.
One half is overpaid , one half is not paid. The overpaid keep telling everyone how great the economy is, how we need 1,000,000 skilled workers,
when in fact theres a lot of people not working, or eating properly.
And no, im not a NDP fan. I just want fair for everyone.
I really don’t know how our important, wine sipping, positive only ,socialist, overpaid, cant be fired, severance options, can look in the mirror. Oh, I forgot unionized. Unions can be good, but not in the city of prince George.

“Of course the university will have to pay him severance pay”

lol, no they won’t. When someone chooses to leave their workplace, there is no severance to be paid.

I personally know of two people that quit their jobs and were given a severance package.
Cheers

I’m thinking if they got severance, then they didn’t “quit”.

Looks to me like Spin Doctorin’ pays almost as well as Real Doctorin’

At least the real doctors (as in medical) are capable of doing good things for a wide variety of folks, and they have many long hard years in university to learn their craft.
The spin type just have to make their masters look good to the plain folk.

$170G at one job, $159G at the other, if true, is gross and outrageous.

I agree with Smiddy, something around $76G per year is more like it.
metalman.

Many of the upper managememt in this city are grossly overpaid. Making more money than the President of the US and don’t tell me its hard to find good people.

isn’t it time that all the directors (18last count) started to tell the tax payer what their accomplishments are in their days work and what their plans are.
Cheers

“I personally know of two people that quit their jobs and were given a severance package.”

I’m going to agree with smedley… leaving to pursue a new opportunity does not warrant a severance package.

From the Ministry of Labor page:

Compensation eligibility
An employee who is terminated may be eligible for compensation based on the following formula:

After three consecutive months of employment – one week’s pay;
After 12 consecutive months of employment – two weeks’ pay;
After three consecutive years – three weeks’ pay, plus one week’s pay for each additional year of employment to a maximum of eight weeks.

No notice or compensation required
Notice or compensation is not required if:

The employee quits or retires;

van Andrichm doesn’t start working for the City until September, so one can assume that he will remain at the University for a few more months.

This looks like a mutual understanding between van Ancrichem and the University and he will be leaving on his own initiative. If so then there would be no severance.

However due to the lack of any news media reporting on his leaving UNBC and under what terms he is leaving, and whether or not his position will be filled, and whether this is a cost cutting measure, it is hard for citizens at large to understand what is happening.

Considering that this is a huge expenditure of tax dollars, and a big change at UNBC you would think that UNBC would have a news release.

Its always interesting to see how public servants believe what they do is their business, completely ignoring the fact that they are operating on tax dollars, and they answer to the public.

Rob must be reading these comments. I note the one I wrote earlier today that was critical of his accomplishments at UNBC has been deleted. I guess I will see how long this one lasts.