Stewart won’t be rushed into making changes
The last time Vancouver had a regime change, a decade ago, it was followed by a major shakeup of top city staff. But voices from Vancouver city hall of the past, present, and future agree they don’t want that to happen this time, with a new mayor and almost entirely new council set to be sworn in next month.
In the first year after Vision Vancouver swept into power in 2008, several senior city staff quit or were fired. The biggest story was the decision by thennew Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision-majority council, within three days of taking office in 2008, to fire veteran city manager Judy Rogers, costing the city more than $571,788 in severance. At that time, Rogers told The Vancouver Sun’s thencity hall reporter Jeff Lee that she respected the new council’s decision to dismiss her, but made a plea for her professional colleagues to keep their jobs.
Rogers’ sudden firing in 2008 stunned several observers, including past Vancouver mayor Philip Owen, of the Non-Partisan Association, who told The Sun at the time he suspected the new Vision government “would like to do a lot of housekeeping,” but would be doing so “at their peril.”
At the time, Robertson said he didn’t intend to clean house.
But those inside city hall at that time recall that Rogers’ abrupt ouster was followed by the departure of several other senior staffers, who either quit or were fired.
Suzanne Anton served as an NPA city councillor from 2005 to 2011, both before and after Vision took power. On Wednesday, Anton recalled that it felt at the time like the city was losing institutional knowledge and valuable, experienced staff. It was a time of upheaval, she said, and morale was low.
“There was certainly a very strong impression at the time that staff were not happy with all of those changes that were being made,” Anton said. “And certainly many of them demonstrated their displeasure by walking out the door.”
Vancouver’s new mayor-elect, Kennedy Stewart, would be wise not to follow that route, Anton said.
For his part, Stewart said he doesn’t want to clean house just for the sake of cleaning house. “You don’t want to make things unstable for no reason, and too much change can be very stressful for folks. I’m the kind of person who listens and talks to folks to see what their ideas are, and to evaluate before making any kind of moves,” he said after his win.
While Stewart didn’t rule out the possibility of personnel changes, he said: “I want to see what’s going on, I’m not going to be a bull in a china shop, that’s for sure.”
“There’s a lot of staff there that have so much valuable information,” Stewart said. “There’s a lot of expertise there as well.”
Some of the top city staffers have only come into their roles in the last couple of years, including chief planner Gil Kelley, general manager of development Kaye Krishna, and general manager of community services Sandra Singh. The current city manager, Sadhu Johnston, seems to enjoy support from across party lines; when Johnston took over in 2016, the press release announcing his hiring included quotes of glowing endorsement from all three parties on council.
Kevin Quinlan, chief of staff for Mayor Robertson, is one city hall fixture who knows his days are numbered at 12th and Cambie.
Quinlan is one of a handful of political staff working in the mayor’s office whose contracts are aligned to the mayor’s term, meaning they’ll be finished at the end of next week.
“That’s the deal when you sign up to work for the mayor,” Quinlan said. “When he’s out, you’re out as well.”
Quinlan, 35, has spent almost a third of his life working in the mayor’s office. After Robertson’s first win, Quinlan served as his executive assistant, then as his director of communications and policy, and then deputy chief of staff, before finally assuming the chief of staff role in 2016.
On Wednesday — Quinlan’s 3,067th day working for the mayor’s office — he was packing up his office and preparing to help with the incoming mayor’s transition.
While Quinlan said he can’t speculate on what the next mayor might do regarding hiring and firing, he believes Stewart would be well-advised not to shake things up too much.
“There is a huge amount of talent and expertise within the city bureaucracy and I believe they’re very well-positioned to help implement (Stewart’s) agenda and the next council’s agenda. So I wouldn’t foresee a big change,” Quinlan said.
“Certainly, when we came in 10 years ago, it was a very different situation,” Quinlan said. At that time in 2008, the city was dealing with the financial boondoggle of the Olympic Village, Quinlan recalled, as well as the implications from the global financial crisis, and the civic strike of the previous year.
By comparison, Quinlan said, the city is well-positioned now, with lots of new rental housing set be finished soon, funding in place for a major transit infrastructure project, and a strong economy.
“I think it’s really exciting, the ability for the next mayor and council to really build on a lot of those gains. There’s a really good starting place there,” Quinlan said, before adding: “Not that I’m biased.”