mr.x
Dec 12, 2008, 7:41 PM
Vancouver city manager Rogers dismissed
December 12, 2008 11:20 AM
VANCOUVER - Less than a week after Gregor Robertson took over as mayor, Vancouver city manager Judy Rogers has been dismissed and Dr. Penny Ballem has been hired in her place.
On Friday morning, after an emergency council meeting, Robertson announced that Rogers was leaving the city after 25 years – the last 10 as Vancouver’s top bureaucrat.
The departure creates the first crisis for Robertson’s Vision/COPE-dominated council, even before it has had a chance to deal with problems left over from the last administration.
Robertson said council's decision, effective immediately, supports the new Council's agenda for change at City Hall, and that Rogers is working cooperatively to ensure an orderly and principled transition.
"Judy Rogers has made an enormous contribution to the City of Vancouver over the course of her 20-year career here. She built a talented and dedicated professional team over the years, and she has worked hard to help make Vancouver the great city it is today. I wish her the very best as she moves forward in her career," Robertson said.
Today the newly-minted council – which was sworn in Tuesday - was to be given an in-camera briefing on the details behind the last council’s decision to give a $100-million loan guarantee to Millennium Development, the embattled and cash-short company building the $1 billion Athletes Village on False Creek.
Instead, they were informed that Rogers is gone.
The loan became public earlier this year after someone leaked a confidential briefing to a newspaper columnist. The loan and the leak became a major election issue that many believe helped to end a Non-Partisan Association domination of council.
In one of its last acts, the last council hired lawyer Richard Peck to investigate how a briefing book belonging to Peter Ladner, the NPA mayoral candidate, disappeared from an in-camera briefing.
That leak, the loan guarantee and a bitter three-month civic strike last year all presented trouble for Rogers. In the middle of the strike she issued a confidential memo to staff suggesting that the unions were less interested in settling contracts than in using the strike to defeat the NPA in the next election.
In the days after Robertson’s union-backed Vision Vancouver won a sweeping majority, there were rumours that Rogers’ days were numbered. It was clear that she didn’t enjoy the same confidence from some Vision/COPE members that she did from the NPA.
Rogers, 59, is one of two city appointees to the Vancouver Organizing Committee. The other is businessman Jeff Mooney. She is also chairwoman of 2010 LegaciesNow, a society that promotes legacies flowing from the Olympic Games. It is unclear whether Rogers will also resign from LegaciesNow.
Rogers took over as city manager in 1998 when her mentor Ken Dobell went to work for the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority before moving over to the provincial government. She has enjoyed a close working relationship with Dobell and Premier Gordon Campbell, a former Vancouver mayor.
jefflee@vancouversun.com
December 12, 2008 11:20 AM
VANCOUVER - Less than a week after Gregor Robertson took over as mayor, Vancouver city manager Judy Rogers has been dismissed and Dr. Penny Ballem has been hired in her place.
On Friday morning, after an emergency council meeting, Robertson announced that Rogers was leaving the city after 25 years – the last 10 as Vancouver’s top bureaucrat.
The departure creates the first crisis for Robertson’s Vision/COPE-dominated council, even before it has had a chance to deal with problems left over from the last administration.
Robertson said council's decision, effective immediately, supports the new Council's agenda for change at City Hall, and that Rogers is working cooperatively to ensure an orderly and principled transition.
"Judy Rogers has made an enormous contribution to the City of Vancouver over the course of her 20-year career here. She built a talented and dedicated professional team over the years, and she has worked hard to help make Vancouver the great city it is today. I wish her the very best as she moves forward in her career," Robertson said.
Today the newly-minted council – which was sworn in Tuesday - was to be given an in-camera briefing on the details behind the last council’s decision to give a $100-million loan guarantee to Millennium Development, the embattled and cash-short company building the $1 billion Athletes Village on False Creek.
Instead, they were informed that Rogers is gone.
The loan became public earlier this year after someone leaked a confidential briefing to a newspaper columnist. The loan and the leak became a major election issue that many believe helped to end a Non-Partisan Association domination of council.
In one of its last acts, the last council hired lawyer Richard Peck to investigate how a briefing book belonging to Peter Ladner, the NPA mayoral candidate, disappeared from an in-camera briefing.
That leak, the loan guarantee and a bitter three-month civic strike last year all presented trouble for Rogers. In the middle of the strike she issued a confidential memo to staff suggesting that the unions were less interested in settling contracts than in using the strike to defeat the NPA in the next election.
In the days after Robertson’s union-backed Vision Vancouver won a sweeping majority, there were rumours that Rogers’ days were numbered. It was clear that she didn’t enjoy the same confidence from some Vision/COPE members that she did from the NPA.
Rogers, 59, is one of two city appointees to the Vancouver Organizing Committee. The other is businessman Jeff Mooney. She is also chairwoman of 2010 LegaciesNow, a society that promotes legacies flowing from the Olympic Games. It is unclear whether Rogers will also resign from LegaciesNow.
Rogers took over as city manager in 1998 when her mentor Ken Dobell went to work for the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority before moving over to the provincial government. She has enjoyed a close working relationship with Dobell and Premier Gordon Campbell, a former Vancouver mayor.
jefflee@vancouversun.com