Thursday, April 25, 2013
DISTRICT OF TOFINO APPOINTS NEW CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
The District of Tofino is pleased
to announce that it has appointed Bob MacPherson as its new Chief
Administrative Officer (CAO). Bob, who will begin on June 10, 2013,
comes to the District of Tofino from the Resort Municipality of Whistler
where he has worked in several municipal leadership positions,
including Interim CAO, General Manager of Corporate and Community
Services, and General Manager of Planning and Development.
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26 comments:
Welcome and best wishes.
Welcome Bob. Have you made any plans yet about how you'll spend your upcoming severance package?
Let's welcome the new CAO in a positive manner . Without Smith and Schmunk I think the era of severance packages and gag orders is over .While council voted unanimously to fire Sally Mole at great expense to the taxpayer, I believe they did so after being poorly advised.
Welcome Bob ! No pay parking please.thanks
Good luck in the most impossible job on the North American continent.
he comes from Whistler.... why not someone from Chetwynd, who has taken a small community and united them, built a diversified economy and created a housing market for everyone.
We hardly need someone from Whistler, who is used to bureaucratic movements, back room deals and working the system. Tell me what have you done, other then survived Whistler?
As Steve Jobs would say, People who hire who are C level at their jobs, hire D level workers.... purely out of fear. A level employees hire A level employees, because they know what is best for the organization.
We have a council that is barely at C level, a Mayor that is questionable at best, and a future that isn't looking to bright, I wont be wearing shades!
On the other hand he will know the problems of dealing with a resort municipality.....like it or not that is what we've become.......
Worse yet, he's from Nova Scotia...... and you know what those people are like, eh.
A search of BC Court records shows nothing for Mr Macpherson and nothing negative shows up in Google searches so we are much further ahead than we were before !
Thanks for that.
8:46 the unhappy negativity comments reveal no hope for anybody. even if they were from chetwynd.
on the happy side of thinks lets give thanks tofino has an experienced qualified resort municipality CAO! welcome bob
wait a second..................if nobody likes tofino being a resort town? howd it get to be one?
too latte; or not to late?
Maybe we've finally found someone who knows what they are doing? Good luck in the new job.
Bet he doesn't come cheap... Sacrifice Sally and use the smoke and mirrors trick to pretend there's a cost savings, then use the same mirror to deflect the big salary onto the "cost savings"... As far as I'm concerned, this council may as well have resigned with the restructuring. That being said, I hope we have a strong leader coming in, we need it!
no smoke and mirrors. one cao is replaced by another. His experience seems more fitting than the last one which is good. This has nothing to do with sally.
I highly doubt that the politics are more convoluted here than they are in whistler. It is a bit more isolated and people are acting accordingly.
Reading the comments above, shows a lack of understanding of the CAO position and reality. We have a council that directs the CAO. He basically does and in return provides guidance for Council decisions.
We have a DOT staff that is weak
We have a even more weak council
Weak + Weak = Weaker
Is anyone expecting a different result?
Do you think Dorothy, Al, Ray, Cathy or even Josie would get hired to run a million dollar company? They should all resign.
Say what you want about Perry, but I doubt any of the staff or council could land a job in the private sector.
What can you do?
Next election vote them out!
Keep up the pressure on these elected officials
Sit in a council meeting and watch redundancy at work : >
Two words "Pay Parking"...check the pique magazine from Whistler
no thanks
No Pay Parking is an idiot. Nothing will be exempt from review when the chickens come home to roost.
The chickens are all the grants and other income sources that make up a huge portion of what keeps this town operating other than taxes on residents and businesses. If all those grant monies dry up for some reason watch taxes on residents and businesses soar. For a better idea of what the town faces, study the town budget proposed for the next 5 years:
https://tofino.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=18793
I just hope our new CAO has lots of experience applying for grants to keep this beautiful little town affordable.
I think our Mayor and Council have chosen wisely based on the idea that coming from Whistler there must have been a lot of development and sustainability issues he's dealt with.
So before everyone starts screaming at the new CAO and mayor and council, as they will about the future tax increases and user fees needed to run this town, maybe they ought to think about what a dumb decision was made by voting for an ice rink that isn't even in town.
Pay parking for out of towners, the multiplex and modest tax increases for locals are are all reasonably good ideas and to some degree probably necessary. The beautification project at 4th and Campbell is also a step in the right direction. Hopefully future costs will be shared equitably and fairly between home owners, businesses and tourists. Mayor and council have a difficult job but are making some noticeable improvements to our village.
if people do not want major tax increases, then the west coast multiplex is not a good idea. The statistics of other rec centres of its size show that it is a very expensive endeavor. Furthermore, our oulation base is not even close to big enough to keep the rec centre busy. Meaning that tourists are needed to be interested in such a project. Bear in mind, no matter how large the usage is, fees at the gate will not even cover a small ercentage of the costs. Can we say white elephant? I do not understand why a more modest approach could not have been taken with such a rec centre. The location contributes to sprawl, necessitates car use (how are kids going to get there when parents are at work?). A more sensible approach would have been, for any future developments, let the developers contribute a percentage of the money to build a smaller scale rec centre in town.
As far as pay parking goes, tourists will pay it while locals will find ways around it. A moderately priced annual parking pass seems like a reasonable loophole. Some unintended consequences of the pay parking will be that it is an extra fee for tourists who already dished out fees for the park pass, etc. So basically this extra $10 per day per tourist is a money transfer from the local economy to the government coffers. the theory is that it will reduce the tax burden of the locals, but if the tourist do not want to come back, then there won't be any locals.
We have to keep in mind that a flight from bellingham to vegas is $100 taxes included round trip. people spend more to get from the lower mainland to here. the provincial government is doing its part to stifle the tourist economy on the island with its heinous management of the bc ferries.
another rant ensued
Okay! let try to have a possitive outlook here this CAO has the knowledge and experiance to realize that he has a very green inexperianced staff and i am sure will look at all aspects of the operations and make the correct changes. I would be nice to see a strong qualified public works department developed. I hope that this would help solve some of the infastructer problems
In response to many
If you read about Mr Schmunk in the Pique magazine series about his life you will see most of his endeavors have ended in anything BUT success.
As for Pay Parking very bad idea for any seaside town. Seaside Oregon is a prime example of a once vibrant Town sliding off the tourist map for some bad decisions made by well meaning people I'm sure.
Council is not perfect...none are yet we need to support them with direct thoughtful input or they will never get better at their jobs. personal attacks show how low minded some can be.
Multiplex regretfully is a very simple issue...We cannot afford it at this time, and the cost overruns will be way bigger than expected as such projects always are.
New CAO best of luck listen lots but try to hear what people are really saying between the attacks.
1. old time locals are scared/angry about change.
2.Families seem to want big town amenities in our little village...while we can't afford basic infrastucture.
3. Business' are frustrated with DOT for lack of accountability and professionalism on many issues.
4. This town would dry up very fast without tourism $$$ like it or not the old economy is transforming. Imagine how all the video store owners feel :)
Help other make the decisions you see as difficult. Disagreement does not need to be an attack.
Let's give the guy a chance before we gang up on him. Everyone deserves a chance and this hostility towards the District and anything and everything they do should be curbed. What's done is done and the past is the past. Nobody will move forward if we are always bringing up the past. It's done. It can't be changed. But let's try to be supportive instead of hating on someone we haven't even met or seen in action.
Thanks for that ....
Bob left behind this mess.
http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/macpherson-andquotiandaposm-the-villainandquot-over-cheakamus-crossing/Content?oid=2168241
Whistler is shocked and sorry to be losing Bob, a very bright, thoughtful, and articulate leader. The asphalt plant dilemma was a product of several intricate and complex parties. If you visit Cheakamus Crossing today, it is vibrant and very successful. Tough decisions and honesty articulated by a true leader. Whistlers loss.
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