Nanaimo mayor reconsidering politics after ‘tough’ week
‘The way I feel now, I don’t believe I’ll run again’
If Nanaimo Mayor Bill McKay had to decide today, he would “absolutely” not run in the 2018 municipal elections.
“The way I feel right now, I don’t believe I’ll run again,” he told the Times Colonist on Tuesday, citing what he sees as a “take no prisoners” way of approaching issues that pervades city government. “I didn’t sign on for this.”
McKay said he has felt bullied since day one. But last year, seven of eight councillors called for McKay’s resignation over an allegation that he bullied a staff member. And the city is suing the mayor over allegations he shared confidential information.
McKay doesn’t have to decide now whether he will seek a second term, but said “in the last week or so, things have been tough.”
There was the decision by the B.C. municipal affairs minister, stating the province will not get involved in ongoing conflict involving city administration.
That came barely a week after a confidential personnel document on handling such conflict was leaked. The report, by an independent consultant, suggested the mayor needed “training and support in the management of emotional outbursts and disrespectful conduct,” according to the Globe and Mail.
Then Tracy Samra, Nanaimo’s chief administrator, released a statement saying that the report’s consultant, Roslyn Goldner, found that McKay, Coun. Diane Brennan and former councillor Wendy Pratt created a hostile work environment for her.
The mayor responded by calling Samra’s statement “grossly inaccurate in its facts.”
The past week’s events are only the most recent in what have been months of strife at Nanaimo City Hall.
More than 20 senior employees have left in the last year, McKay said.
Last October, Coun. Gord Fuller told the mayor to “bite me” during a meeting.
In November, a citizen released a confidential email written by McKay in 2015 to an outside conflict-resolution mediator, which described some councillors as bullies and mentally ill.
After complaints about McKay relating to financial-disclosure reporting, business dealings and trade missions, and after an unnamed councillor was arrested after an altercation at a council meeting, a special prosecutor was appointed to work with police investigating the incidents.
Lawyer Heather MacKenzie of the Integrity Group spent 166 hours making recommendations to improve interpersonal relationships at city hall. McKay said the bill has yet to be paid because some councillors think the mayor himself should foot more than half the $48,000 bill. The city had budgeted $20,000 for the work.
McKay said he works 50 to 60 hours a week, but only half the time is spent on citizens’ business.
“We’re doing less than half of what we’d be doing if we were professional and efficient and business-like in how we approached the citizens’ interests,” he said.
The dysfunction is bad for the city’s bottom line, he said.
“I believe that the shenanigans have driven investment away. Investment goes to friendly and stable communities and governments; it doesn’t go to unfriendly and unstable places.”
He added: “All I ever wanted was to go to work and do my job.”