It’s a short move for a local government official, but a big change for both Powell River Regional District and City of Powell River.
Officials have announced that Mac Fraser, chief administrative officer (CAO) for the regional district, has been named the city’s new CAO.
Fraser, who started with the regional district in April 2011, takes over from former city CAO Stan Westby, who moved to City of Whitehorse at the end of July to become its CAO.
Fraser’s early experience was with the Canadian Forces, where he retired from the position of engineer for CFB Comox. He then moved into local government with a position as operations manager for the Village of Cumberland. He advanced into the role of chief financial officer and ultimately was appointed CAO.
Fraser then moved to the Islands Trust where he spent four years as director of planning, before moving to Powell River.
Mayor Dave Formosa said Fraser is a seasoned government servant with small, coastal community organizations and he has been very well accepted with the regional district. “We’re very excited about the engineering background, because of the fact we haven’t had a professional engineer for a long time,” he said. “To have Mac as part of the team, that definitely has its pluses.”
The relationship between the city and regional district has been improving, Formosa said, and Fraser has been a part of that. “Hopefully that all continues to flourish in that same direction that we’re headed with the RD, which seems to be very positive,” Formosa said.
Fraser said he was honoured that council selected him. “It was not easy to leave the regional district,” he said. “There’s absolutely no reason to leave it, but it’s a progressive move in my career and a challenge to help my community in the leadership of a larger organization.”
Fraser said he approached the city about the position. He will be staying at the regional district for a month, with his first day of work at the city on September 21.
Both the council and the board have had opportunities over the last couple of years to work together and they’ve seized it, Fraser pointed out. “I’ve been happy to be helping in that. I don’t think this move would do anything to challenge that and might actually enhance it just a little bit more.”
Fraser said he’s happy to stay in the region in the wake of Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation’s ratification of its treaty. “I’m quite excited to stay in the region with Sliammon heading into transition after the treaty vote. I’m continuing to be very happy to be part of the community.”
Fraser and his wife had plans to buy recreational property in Powell River before the regional district opportunity appeared. “It would have been a non-starter to have considered a job outside of Powell River,” he said. “I’m committed to the community and, quite frankly, I didn’t think this was going to be an opportunity. I was happy to have a chance to consider it and for council to think about it.”
Fraser said he thinks the community has perhaps weathered the worst of economic times, with Catalyst Paper Corporation emerging from creditor protection. “I’d like to hope we’d be part of better times. I do put a lot of stock in the fact that Catalyst appears to have an exit plan out of bankruptcy and that’s something to build on. It’s a positive.”
Colin Palmer, regional board chair and Electoral Area C director, said the board anticipated Fraser would be with them for four years. “It’s quite a shocker for us,” he said. “It’s a situation where there’s no dispute between the board, as individuals or as a group, with his work. There haven’t been any problems within the staff.”
It’s been a complicated situation for Palmer, as he has known for five weeks that Fraser was interested in the city position. “There were some meetings where I was sitting with him, knowing what he was doing, the two city directors sitting across the table knew, but the rest of my board didn’t,” Palmer said.
Palmer said he couldn’t call a personnel committee meeting, because the two city directors are part of the personnel committee. “I couldn’t sit down and have a meeting to explain to everyone what was going on, because they knew and they were in in-camera sessions. I couldn’t say anything, because it’s a labour issue. It got more and more complicated as time went by.”
The big saving grace for the regional district is the fact that “we have a wonderful staff,” Palmer said. “Not only do we have wonderful staff, they’re on the ball doing their jobs, they’re working in their various areas. I would say that the whole board is more than satisfied with the staff we’ve got.”
Now the board has to move on, Palmer said. “There are things that have to happen. The transition starts as of today. We’ve got questions like, do we just carry on after a month with the staff, do we find someone temporarily to cover say a three-month period, do we hire a consulting firm to get us another CAO?”
Palmer will now be calling a meeting of the personnel committee as soon as possible, he said.
