Colour & texture
Saanich artists brings her talents to paint-in Page A5
NEWS: Promoting the pavlion /A3 DRIVEWAY: New mustang: mean and lean /A9 SPORTS: Pee Wee provincials come to town /A13
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Fun in the Sun Six-year-old Sara Fercho, left, and sister Megan work on a sandcastle during a family outing to Cadboro Bay. Dan Ebenal/News Staff
Saanich Council launches search for new CAO Municipality’s hiring process is clarified moving forward Travis Paterson News Staff
Saanich’s search for a new Chief Administrative Officer is about to start and, perhaps not surprisingly, it comes with an added layer of controversy. The announcement to replace current CAO Andy Laidlaw, whose interim contract
ends in August, came from Saanich Mayor and Council in a press release late on Tuesday afternoon (July 14) and contained two peculiarities: a paragraph disclosing that Saanich Council was aware Laidlaw faced a conflict of interest when he left his previous appointment in Campbell River in January, and was subsequently hired by Saanich, and that the contact for the press release is acting mayor (and long time) Coun. Susan Brice. Mayor Richard Atwell confirmed his abstinence on the matter in a statement, because of his comments in a July Focus Magazine article regarding Laidlaw’s con-
flict of interest in Campbell River and the conduct of Saanich staff. He also said Brice currently has the right to speak as acting mayor based on a pre-determined schedule decided on Dec. 1. Brice said that while there wasn’t a lot of media coverage on the departure of Laidlaw from Campbell River (besides Focus Magazine), council felt the need to address concerns about their procedure at his hiring. “We wanted to be totally transparent about how the appointment of our current CAO (Laidlaw) was done,” Brice said. “We’ve been very, very pleased with the service of (Laidlaw), and any of the issues
related to his appointment in Campbell River we were aware of. That occurrence was not considered a (holdback) from hiring Mr. Laidlaw, and we’re pleased that we did.” For the recruitment process, Saanich has retained the Toronto arm of international executive hiring firm Boyden. “This is a kind of progress report for the public before we moved forward to find a permanent replacement for the position,” Brice said. PLEASE SEE: Saanich searches for new CAO, Page A3
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