Sooke is once again in the position to hire a CAO
Sooke Mayor Maja Tait opened Monday’s Regular Council Meeting with an announcement.
“Teresa Sullivan is no longer with the District of Sooke,” she said. Questions of the CAO are normally to go to the current acting CAO Brent Blackhall, but seeing as he is on vacation, in his stead will be Corporate Officer Carolyn Mushata.
“Nothing further can be said,” concluded Tait definitively.
Sooke has gone through six CAOs since incorporating in 1999. The list includes David Gawley (interim) 1999, Tom Day (2000-2003), Peter Jmaeff (2003-06), Evan Parliament (2006-12), Gord Howie (2012-15), and the latest, Teresa Sullivan (Dec 2015-Feb 2018).
It looks like the District is once again in the market to hire another CAO.
Meeting Overview
Present:
Mayor Maja Tait, and Councillors Brenda Parkinson, Ebony Logins, and Rick Kasper.
Absent:
Councillors Bev Berger, Kerrie Reay, and Kevin Pearson
Meeting Matters
Wazzup with this??? Whats their problem keeping staff?
That will sure bring a smile to a lot of people in this town — Hip, Hip, Hurray !
Indeed. There will be celebrating in the streets now that she is gone. Sullivan was the worse thing that could happen to Sooke. Maybe now the fighting will stop.
I hope there wasn’t a big pension for her. It was never right that her friend Councillor Reay brought her on staff without due process. Then Sullivan brought in her friend Gabriel Joseph without due process, who then reportedly quit with a big buy out.
Yes they have had trouble keeping staff. Hopefully will be better now.
So, go smile in private. The circumstance don’t call for public celebration. There are real people involved. If you were not pleased with the process of the last job search, pay attention to the process used for the next job search and see if you can influence that.
well said Heather!
Heather, what circumstances are those? We know – unless you know something that’s not public knowledge – absolutely nothing about Sullivan’s departure. Her onboarding, her high-handedness, her skirting open and transparent hiring practices when Gabriel Joseph was brought in have all left a bad tase in a lot of people’s mouths. Mine included. I’m glad she’s gone and I fervently hope we do a better job of finding someone who is community focused and understands that they work for us and not the other way around.
That we don’t know the circumstances is exactly my point. If people think they have won a victory in losing the CAO, can’t they be gracious enough to be silent?
What they want is a capable CAO. I am not saying, at this time, that Sullivan was capable or not, but that the position is open and people need to be concerned with finding a capable person to fill it. Crowing and finger pointing and blaming will not encourage capable people to apply for the job…be nice Sooke. I think you can do it.
Influence the next job search — I’ll do that in the next Election in 234 days.
I don’t see this as a bad thing. Let’s hope they do the hiring properly and not through friends
I wonder when & how many times we have had a full compliment of Councillors at a meeting, seems like never.
I don’t recall a time since incorporation in 1999 that a Sooke citizen group has not been active in trying to get a CEO or other municipal employee fired or to step down. I am sorry to say.. but it is true. The Sooke tax payer is stuck paying severance when these citizen group are successful in their task.
This is crazy. If Sooke has been going through CAOs that often, maybe the problem is Council!? They seem to be the only consistent part of this craziness. I agree with an earlier comment, how many times are Councillors missing from meetings? I plan on making my vote count this fall, and I would be quite fine with totally new representation! (just my humble opinion)
The time was right for Teresa to move on and I believe the decision was amicable from both sides. The Chief Administrative Officer A.K.A. “City Manager” has a responsibility to manage the District Government. Proper delegation and accepting responsibility for the delegates actions was lacking. Whether Teresa quit or was fired I don’t know but I do know that it takes a minimum of three members of council to fire the city manager. I wouldn’t blame Mayor Tait for the change of guard it’s her first term and was on mat leave for a year? I think the turnover on CAO’s is a testament to how difficult it is to find good staff. Anyone who thinks they can do the job they should apply, the wage isn’t that bad!
Yes they should go local first and if they can’t find a good candidate go outside, not just hire someone who is known by someone.
I am amazed at the incredibly misinformed and moronic comments of some Sooke residents. Teresa was an excellent CAO who always considered the best interests of the community, not the political agendas of some community members and individual councillors. That is the role of the CAO.
Teresa will quickly be hired by another organization and Sooke will struggle to find a competent CAO who is willing to put up with the drama in Sooke. This is clearly Sooke’s loss.
We can only hope that in October the residents of Sooke choose to elect a competent Council who cares about the future of their community.
Anonymous: Is that you Teresa? LOL!OK Bad joke.
I am sorry to see Teresa go, having had the pleasure to work for her while she was here. She was a very caring leader, both for the community and staff. I am embarrassed by the idiots in this community who chose to throw insults at her, without ever finding out the facts, including showing up at her home to harass her! The treatment of staff by this Council and some community members continues to get worse. It is no surprise when staff keep leaving such a toxic environment! It’s true we work for the community, and we are proud to do so, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to abuse any staff member!
I believe it was her time to go. We need someone without so much controversy to make a fresh start. I also think that most of council needs to go as well. We need a more transparent and accountable council and staff to make Sooke better for all of us. To the two “anounymous” commenters you are just as bad as the other people you are insulting. The second one sounds like she works for Sooke and I am shocked to see these comments. I am deeply embarrassed to see people from our community attack each other. The point is she has made the decision to leave and now we can start fresh.