Mayor Simon Yu should be ticked off.
He says he heard about city manager Walter Babicz firing city manager of bylaw services Charlotte Peters from other council members and rumours floating around town, according to the Prince George Citizen.
Babicz should have given Yu a heads up about a high-profile dismissal that he almost certainly knew would have political repercussions. Instead, “the bylaw dismissal never ever came up because I believe, in (Babicz’) opinion, that’s administration’s employee,” Yu told the Citizen about when he brought the matter up with Babicz.
It sounds like Babicz told Yu to pound sand.
Under the current municipal governance system, the city manager is the only person that city council actually employs. All other city employees come under the purview of the city manager and/or their respective managers down the line. This system of governance was adopted years ago to eliminate city councillors trying to micro-manage city operations.
Believe me, I’m old enough to have seen that happen with invariably disastrous results.
Babicz absolutely has the authority to terminate an employee. In fact, it’s part of his job.
When I was in the corporate world, I had the authority to hire and fire. On the couple of occasions that I made the decision to fire an employee, I certainly gave my boss a heads-up.
It’s part of a good working relationship.
I’ll stress it again – Babicz, knowing it was a high-profile firing, should have given Yu a heads-up. He didn’t so we do have to wonder how good the working relationship is between the two.