CityWest makes major changes to Board of Directors

The City of Prince Rupert owned communication company CityWest has announced a number of changes to the make up of its Board of Directors and a number of the new arrivals have significant ties to the Administration offices of the City of Prince Rupert .

In fact, all of them are either current employees of the City of Prince Rupert or recently retired from their positions.

Joining the Board are the City's Chief Financial Officer Corinne Bomben, the City's Corporate Administrator Rory Mandryk and the former member of the City's Engineering Department Bob Thompson.

The three new arrivals will replace outgoing members Bruce Kerr, Steve Lake and Frank Parnell. As well, Directors Jack Payne and Lael McKeown have stepped down from their positions on the Board,.

Robert Long new Chairman of the Board 
for CityWest, Corinne Bomben, 
new member of the Board

Rory Mandryk, a new Board
member with CityWest

In addition to the wide scale exodus from the Board, it was announced on Monday that Robert Long, the City Manager for the City of Prince Rupert, has now been appointed Chair of the Board for CityWest. He previously served CityWest as a Director.

The review of the new Board members came from the CityWest website, as CEO Don Holkestad outlined the list of the changes you can review the announcement here.

The timing of the announcement is fascinating, with but one more public session of Council to come in the mandate for  the current City Council and Mayor, before Prince Rupert residents go to the polls to elect a new Council.

CityWest as most Rupertites know is a frequent topic of conversation around the city and has made for controversial discussions in the past, you can review some of those items from our archive of this year and from those of previous years.

Interestingly enough, no mention of what appears to be a return of active City interest in the communication company can be found on the City's own website, or through the variety of social media options that they use.

With three current City employees now sitting on the board and a fourth member with experience with the City coming on board as well, the shift towards a larger civic overview on the communication company seems to be in motion.

What it means for the company in the future and what the City hopes to achieve by having its own people in Board positions is something that the City should expand on further.

Perhaps City Council will provide the public with a bit of background as to just what's going on with CityWest at their next council session of November 3rd.

Even more interesting, will be whether the topic of CityWest's new focus will be part of the conversation at the All Candidates Forum for the November election, that public discussion opportunity arrives on November 4th at the Lester Centre.