The City of Nanaimo no longer has a chief administrative officer.
Tracy Samra is no longer employed with the city, according to a press release issued early this afternoon.
John Van Horne, the city’s director of human resources, told the News Bulletin that Samra is no longer employed with the city, but that he cannot comment any further on the matter. He said the city is still continuing the hiring process for an interim CAO and that interviews are expected to begin in June.
“The interviews have been arranged with the shortlisted candidates, they’ve all been booked and now we are finalizing the questions and we will be going for interviews for the week of June 18,” Van Horne said.
Samra’s departure from the city, comes after months being on paid leave as a result of an incident on Jan. 31 at city hall, where she was arrested for allegedly making threats against a number of individuals.
According to a court document, RCMP believed that Mayor Bill McKay and city councillors Sheryl Armstrong and Diane Brennan, as well as Jan Kemp, Sheila Gurrie, Donna Stennes, Kim Fowler, Brad McRae and Dominic Jones had reasonable grounds to fear personal harm or injury stemming from the Jan. 31 incident. The B.C. Prosecution Service sought to have Samra bound to conditions of a peace bond as a result of the incident. A court date for her case has been scheduled for June in Nanaimo.
Samra was hired on an interim basis by council in November 2015 and was officially named as the city’s chief administrative officer in March 2016. Immediately after she was hired on an interim basis, concerns were raised by two Nanaimo council members about the interim hiring process and are detailed in a series of in camera documents recently released.
Mayor Bill McKay was not immediately available for comment.
BREAKING: City of #Nanaimo has issued a press release saying that Tracy Samra is no longer chief administrative officer.
— Nicholas M Pescod (@npescod) May 25, 2018
More to come