Mayor Herb Pond seems to have confirmed what has been a fairly steady part of the Prince Rumour mill for a few months now on the topic of senior staff members.
That as the Mayor responded to questions posted on his Facebook page related to the current debate over the use of the Alternative Approval Process towards upcoming infrastructure loans ... one of which asked if City Manager Robert Buchan actually lives in the city full time.
The reply seemingly confirming for residents that the City's top administrator is commuting to and from the city when it comes to his work duties, seemingly not from Port Edward.
Mr. Pond's answer acknowledges the current scenario and would also seem to provide an explanation as to why the City Manager has only been in Council chambers for four of the twelve meetings this year, participating in most by remote methods, absent from the proceedings on other occasions.
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| A snapshot of a City Council session from earlier this year with City Manager Robert Buchan participating by remote connection |
The Mayor's short synopsis however, comes without much background as to what kind of arrangement has been put in place to make it all work, the hiring having taken place over a year prior to Mr. Pond's return to elected civic office.
Nor does the Mayor's brief response explain how much time is actually spent in the city by the City Manager when it comes to the tending to the issues of the day.
The Mayor's commentary does provide for a strong endorsement of the work of Mr. Buchan who was announced as the new City Manager in October 2021, following his time previous as the city's contract planner.
And over the last year and nine months it does seem as though his experience has been valuable to the city since he took on the new duties, steering the city forward on housing plans and dealing with the current infrastructure concerns to name a few areas of note.
While its not an unusual practice for civic officials to live in one community and work in another, its usually something which is found in the larger cities of the lower mainland, Vancouver Island or Okangan where civic officials live in nearby suburbs.
Any commute to Prince Rupert, unless from Terrace, Kitimat or Port Edward, is something which is really quite a bit different.
The current City Council members from the period of the hiring in 2021, probably should explain how they came to the decision to make for the allowance of a long distance relationship for their top civic staffer.
The post after all, being one of the top paying positions with the City of Prince Rupert.
The arrangement, would seem to be a bit more than a distraction as the mayor describes it.
If it's working we should hear how it serves the community, but if there have been concerns heard whether from Council members behind closed doors, or from other stakeholders involved with the city we should be told of those as well.
Another area for clarification for the public, should be if this is just a one time situation, or if the remote management program has been in place for a period of time and how many more civic officials, current or previous may have taken part in the unique career opportunity offered in Prince Rupert.
Regardless, it should make for some discussion and explanation towards how the process works and considering everyone's laser focus on financial issues, if there have been any additional expenses incurred to make the arrangement a success as it has moved forward.
Beyond all that, if indeed the City Manager's City Hall office is vacant, the city may want to lease it out at a market rental rate and put the money towards the infrastructure loan requirement, especially since city residents are being asked to do their share through increased taxation and utility fees.
More notes on Civic themes can be explored through our achieve page.
Dr Buchan bought a house here in PR. Doubtful he is paying a mortgage to leave it vacant.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear, someone may want to pass that on to the Mayor I guess considering the theme of his FB reply. Though if so, I would seem not to be a year round residence, considering the volume of Council meeting absences ... NCR
DeleteBased on your dismissal as a ‘if’, You don’t trust your loyal readers to tell you the truth when you’re wrong?
DeleteYou wrote an entire article based on a single Facebook comment without substantiating or verifying your claims.
That is not journalism. That is what would be expected of an anonymous blo….oh wait
I will be watching more intently now to see how many more meetings he is at the rest of the year.
DeleteSome of those meetings that he attended remotely were while out of town on City business.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course as is obvious by the travelling party that accompanied him and the nature of his work though there is such a thing as scheduling ... you seem to be missing the theme of the story, that being that City Council should explain for the public how the arrangement works NCR
DeleteAnd you seem to be going for click bait and rage farming
DeleteIn a highly virtual world where qualified people can work from anywhere, this reader wants Prince Rupert to hire the best.
DeleteVirtual/remote work is a matter of an employment contract which obviously will not get disclosed in public for legal reasons.
A related question is whether the City pays for travel expenses when employees who otherwise work remotely show up in person.
ReplyDeleteAs the article points out, the arrangement with the City Manager predates the Mayor's return to public office. Terms of employment and travel expenses are not protected by privacy law, so the the current mayor and council are free to shed some light on the situation, not just the councillors who were in office in 2021 under the previous mayor.
It’s highly inappropriate to publicize any individual employee’s personal work schedule. This article is treading on dangerous territory. Why stir up BS to make the city managers job harder than it already is? We are lucky to have such a qualified and experienced public servant working on behalf of our town
DeleteI didn't say anything about any personal work schedule, and on that particular point I agree with you.
DeleteIf you look at section 22(4) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act you will see that information about "the third party's position, functions or remuneration as an officer, employee or member of a public body" and about "expenses incurred by the third party while travelling at the expense of a public body" is not considered to be an unreasonable breach of personal privacy.
Sometimes organizations pay travel expenses for an employee to attend the place of business. If that is the case here, the public has a right to know.
You draw a check from the city you should be living here. Senior positions require eyes on checking on what you are being told. Bob Long was gone for long periods of time. Why do we have to have another absentee manager?
ReplyDeleteThis blogger will do anything to paint the city in a bad light
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're back from your short term absence .. loaded up and ready to fire once again with your usual bromides of nonsense ! NCR
DeleteOne of my questions would be does he commute through YXT or YPR
ReplyDeleteGood question. Does he. fly in and out of Prince Rupert or does he support Terrace. We need to support our airport operations.
ReplyDeleteAside from his vacation days he should only travel for business and come right back. In an emergency situation it is very hard to direct things when all lines of communication are out.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like someone who still uses a fax machine
DeleteNope faxes don’t work in a lot of emergency situations, so if I’m out of town I discovered I can’t fax either.
DeleteThat explains the roads. He is not driving through the pot holes to get to work like the rest of us. He doesn’t know how many there are!
ReplyDeleteThe manager should live in Prince Rupert.
ReplyDeleteAs for this blog, it's one of the best things Prince Rupert has in terms of reporting, writing and well no BS.
I think the big issue I have with the city is that we should have full disclosure on what is being spent in the travel expenses of some employees. I think some of these expenses can be cut a bit given that we are already seeing a spike in taxes.
ReplyDelete