The District of Sicamous is once again without a chief administrative officer.
Former district administrator Fred Banham tendered his resignation last Monday.
Mayor Terry Rysz said Banham handed over his keys and phone that morning.
“We had kind of an emergency meeting and he addressed council as well, and he gave his reasoning behind his decision,” said Rysz. “At the same time, he gave us some advice for the future and we basically accepted his resignation and shook hands and he was good to go.
“He was four months in. I don’t think in Fred’s mind it was the right fit for him at this stage, and so we just had to accept that.”
Banham began working with the district in March. While council has yet to make any formal decisions on a replacement, Rysz suggested council is leaning towards an interim administrator, and doing the hiring “in-house” as opposed to hiring a “head-hunter” as was done prior.
“The general feeling right now is we’re going to do this in-house, and we do have a list of several names now from when we had all those applicants,” said Rysz. “And then, if we bring an interim CAO in, I’m sure we can get assistance just through that to find another CAO.
“Also, our council, we’re eight months into it now or somewhere around there, and I think they may have a better idea as to what type of CAO they would like. Because there’s different characteristics to CAOs. Some push back, some are very accommodating. We might have to have that discussion as to the style of CAO that we want and then go after that.”
Rysz said he spoke with district staff about Banham’s resignation and, while there was some surprise, Rysz said they were supportive of the decision and responded positively to the notion of carrying on without an administrator.
“We ran eight months without a CAO – nobody seems to be too concerned,” said Rysz. ‘We’re having a planning meeting, a committee of the whole meeting and a council meeting next Wednesday and we’re just moving right along.”
Banham replaced former CAO Heidi Frank, who relocated to Oliver in August of last year.