Sechelt's director of corporate services Chris Connor has resigned, just one day shy of his four-month anniversary with the District.
Connor was hired on Feb. 7 and he handed in his resignation on June 6.
Responsible for legal matters within the District, Connor said he was prepared to stay for two weeks to clean up all his files and prep a replacement, but he was told he could leave that day and still get his two-week's severance pay.
Sechelt Mayor John Henderson said chief of innovation and growth (CIG) Ron Buchhorn told Connor he could "wrap things up on Thursday and be gone."
"If people want to depart sometimes it is better to just make a clean break right away," Henderson said.
Connor noted that because he's still on the District's payroll until June 20 he's not at liberty to talk about his reasons for resignation at this point.
"But when I took the job in Sechelt my intention was to stay forever," Connor said. "That obviously didn't work out. I'm not sad to leave the job. I am sad to leave my coworkers, both union and management they really are a wonderful group of people. It's a very stressful place that they're in right now, but I think they really handle themselves well."
Connor has retained his own legal counsel to help with matters pertaining to his departure from the District. He's the 10th staff person to leave the District of Sechelt since the November 2011 election. Many of those departures have included senior staff positions such as the director of finance, manager of sustainability and, most recently, the CIG, who was replaced by Buchhorn in April.
Henderson pointed out "many municipalities have had considerable turnover" in B.C. although he granted the turnover is unprecedented in Sechelt's history.
"In the case of what's happened with us, it's given us a chance to realign the organization," he said.
Henderson added the District will likely hire director of human resources Margi Nicholas to fill Connor's position, although the decision wasn't made public by press time.
Connor said he will be getting back into the legal profession in Victoria once his contract with the District is up.
