The District of Sechelt (DOS) is actively seeking a new chief administrative officer after deciding to let CAO Rob Bremner go last week.
The decision was made in-camera, effective March 16, but the details were not released to the public until Tuesday, March 20.
"I don't know what he's going to do next, but we, council and Mr. Bremner, have had some ongoing discussions and the result of them is that we just came to an agreement to conclude his employment," Sechelt Mayor John Henderson said, noting Bremner is currently off-Coast on vacation.
Manager of sustainability and special projects Emanuel Machado was acting CAO last week and chief financial officer Andrea DeBucy has been filling the role this week while Machado is on vacation.
Henderson said Machado will resume the acting CAO role when he returns, but said the District may be able to have a short term CAO in place soon to lessen the burden on senior staff.
"There are a number of people who have been CAOs in the past who are available for short-term assignments. It's kind of like a CAO club. It's people who, maybe they're semi-retired or fully retired they're quite happy to spend two or three months doing something in another municipality," Henderson said.
"We anticipate in the next few weeks that we will find somebody to come in on an interim basis and at the same time we will be talking to some professionals about proceeding with a professional search for a permanent successor."
Henderson wouldn't say exactly why Bremner was let go.
"The issue here is more about looking forward. In any situation like this it's never easy, but council made the decision that it was best for us to go in a different direction," Henderson said. "I'm not going to comment on the personalities or the individual issues, that's a complex thing that has a whole bunch of factors and it's not really relevant. We made the decision and now we're excited about the future and the opportunities we have with finding a new person."
Henderson said council is seeking a specific type of person to fill the CAO position.
"I think we're clear that as a council we were elected to put Sechelt on the map, to be bold and innovative, really to help the community be even more successful, so we certainly want to find somebody who shares that enthusiasm and has the talents and the experience to really help take us into these new ventures," Henderson said.
"Whether it's business development, helping me with that or getting some of the other major projects actually completed, we need somebody with some strong credentials on getting things done."
