Editor's Note -- I don't imagine your average Quesnel taxpayer will be happy with this news. I'll be interested in reading how local taxpayer advocate and general pain in the a$$ to Quesnel Mayor Mary Sjostrom, Pat Morton, will respond to this recent development
Courtesy of the Rush:
More than a quarter of a million dollars !
That's how much money taxpayers in Quesnel will shell out in severance this year.
Former City Manager John Stecyk received more than 170 thousand dollars despite the fact he resigned for personal reasons back in May and now, through a freedom of information request, we have learned what Muriel Wild, the city's former Human Resources Advisor, is getting.
Councillor Sushil Thapar says the city has paid Wild $57,157.36 from January through August and will continue making bi-weekly payments of $3,376.04.
He says they basically fired a good employee and now taxpayers are paying the price for it.
Thapar says staff will be forced to balance this year's overall budget by dipping into the R-C-M-P budget.
He says this money should have been used on the city's infrastructure or to lower taxes.
Quesnel City Manager Byron Johnson meanwhile, responding to the claim that city is paying out all that severance, says it's an unfortunate cost of doing business.
Johnson says he can't comment on specific cases due to confidentiality on employee issues but he does say the corporation often has little choice but to pay.
Johnson also says there are issues around whether it's easier to pay it and live with what the contract is or face some of the legal consequences.
He says legal bills can rack up in a hurry and sometimes it is better to just pay the amount that is known and move forward.
Johnson says fortunately severances are not something the city runs into every year or even every couple of years.
3 comments:
What is Johnson saying? According to the contract on pat morton's website, he's cost taxpayers over $200k in his first year here, taking a $50k prime loan, and operating two business interests at the same time as being city manager. How can other local businesses get some of that action? Is Johnson implying something different should have been done? Spit it out boy.
Mr. Johnson appears to be supporting actions taken by council, which is not his job. Why isn't council or the mayor speaking instead of him? They're the ones who created this quagmire.
Everything old is new again. It was 1995 when a supposedly sjostromesque Mayor named Wallace went to town with even bigger severance expenses. Check the link below. Quesnel does seem to have a tendency, but it appears to have been far more expensive previously.
http://www.quesnelmuseum.ca/CaribooObserverDocs/1995/19950409_Cariboo%20Observer-1.pdf
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