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HOME DESTROYED: Burnaby firefighters battle a blaze at 9950 Lyndhurst St. early Sunday morning. All the occupants, including two dogs, managed to get out of the house. PHOTO RYAN STELTING
Costly city severance agreements on the rise Cornelia Naylor
cnaylor@burnabynow.com
The number of costly agreements the City of Burnaby has signed with managers and executives who’ve left their positions suddenly without any public explanation has risen sharply over the last three years, according to its statements of financial
information. The city signed six severance agreements last year and paid out between seven and 20 months’ salary and benefits for each, according to the 2020 SOFI published this month. That compares to three such agreements in 2019, two in 2018 and one in 2017. By contrast, the
City ofVancouver signed one severance agreement last year and paid out three months’ pay, according to its report. Severance is a form of compensation paid to employees when their job is terminated through no fault of their own. While the annual reports don’t provide details about severance
agreements, the NOW has reported on four senior managers who left the City of Burnaby with no explanation in 2020 but still ended up on last year’s so-called “sunshine list.” The municipality’s top three IT managers – chief information officer Shari Wallace and deputy directors John Cooke and Jacek
Kaim – left in July. But their combined pay in 2020 was still $426,082, according to the SOFI. After their departure, the city declined to share any details on the matter. City communications staffer Marie Ishikawa said only that the city was “undergoing a departmental reorganization.”
According to organizational charts included in its five-year financial plans, the city appears to have cut the IT department’s deputy director positions. A March 2020 chart shows two deputies and one assistant deputy answering toWallace, while a March 2021 chart included in the city’s most Continued on page 15