The municipality has two fewer senior managers as of this week, after Mike Vance's position was eliminated as part of the ongoing organizational review and Bill Brown resigned.
Vance, who has a long history with the RMOW, was the general manager of the Policy and Program Development division, and Brown is leaving his post as manager of community planning.
According to the most recent Statement of Financial Information (SOFI), Vance's total remuneration in 2010 was $146,833.
"I would like to recognize Mr. Vance for his work with the organization on behalf of the resort community," said Mike Furey, RMOW chief administrative officer (CAO), in a statement released last Thursday (Feb. 2).
Not only has Vance's position been eliminated, but the entire Policy and Program Development department has been axed in the organizational review — with the remaining staff and workloads being spread to other divisions within the RMOW.
A few of the roles that reported to Vance include the accessibility coordinator, energy manager and sustainability coordinator as well as those working on Whistler 2020, the Official Community Plan (OCP) and legislative services.
Furey noted that Jan Jansen, general manager of resort experience, will now oversee the OCP project following Vance's departure.
When asked how the news of Vance's elimination has been received among municipal staff, Furey said, "I prefer not to comment on personnel matters at the hall… we've been working with impacted staff on that particular part of the restructure."
Being conducted in-house by Furey, the organizational review is an in-depth look at the management structure at the RMOW, with the end goal being to run municipal hall in the most cost-effective manner.
Furey is currently reviewing the municipality's structure at the general manager level, with the departments of Community Life, Economic Viability, Environmental Services, Resort Experience and the executive office remaining for review. Following that, Furey will look at the departmental level of each division to see where further changes can be made.
"I think organizational change is just ongoing by its nature, it's not like, 'We've got our organization figured out and now it's done,' — it's not a static thing, so we'll continually be finding ways to find efficiencies," explained Furey on Tuesday (Feb. 7).
"We did make one change last week and… we will be bringing a presentation (to council) on Feb. 21 on sort of a broader recommendation relating to the senior management team and the new structure we'll be looking at there, but the work will continue after that for sure."
As for Brown's resignation, Furey noted it had nothing to do with the organizational review. Also a longtime municipal employee, Brown is leaving Whistler for a new job after tendering his resignation on Jan. 26.
"On his own fruition he's found another opportunity around Victoria, and that came as a surprise to us," said Furey of Brown. "It's a total loss for the RMOW and Whistler, and we're really sorry to see Bill go."
While his exact date of departure is uncertain, Brown is expected to remain at the RMOW until around the end of February.
The recent staffing changes follow several months of significant departures at municipal hall. Former CAO Bill Barratt retired last July and 12-year RMOW employee Lisa Landry resigned from the general manager of economic viability post in November. And of course, Whistlerites elected an entirely new mayor and council almost three months ago.
The organizational review follows the service review that was conducted last year, which saw a savings of $1.2 million after reducing services and eliminating several positions from various departments. That review was conducted by a third-party consulting firm, and became the source of a controversy when it was made known that the amount paid for the consultant amounted to $120,000 — nearly twice what was originally budgeted for the process.
