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Lantzville hires interim chief administrative officer

LANTZVILLE – Fred Manson takes over as top bureaucrat in Lantzville after Brad McRae’s hiring in Nanaimo.
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Lantzville District Hall

The District of Lantzville has found a temporary replacement for the position of chief administrative officer.

On Monday, Lantzville councillors voted in favour of hiring Fred Manson as interim chief administrative officer.

Manson will take over the position from Brad McRae, the district’s current CAO, who accepted a high-ranking position with the City of Nanaimo earlier this month.

In what was his last Lantzville council meeting, McRae told councillors that Manson is well suited for the interim position.

“Mr. Manson has been with municipal government for a multitude of years. His most recent posting was with Parksville for many a year,” McRae said. “He had a very good rapport with staff, a very good rapport with his mayor and council and his community. The district is lucky to have him.”

Manson is coming out of retirement to provide interim CAO services to Lantzville.

Speaking to the News Bulletin afterwards, McRae said Manson has a long history in local government and his job will be to ensure things continue in the right direction for Lantzville.

“His job is here is to basically keep the ship righted,” McRae said. “We’ve got the ship righted now and we want to keep it righted.”

McRae said he’s working on ensuring that Manson will informed about all the recent decisions made by council and on some of the bigger issues the community is dealing with.

“I am preparing a book for him in regards to what we have accomplished, where we are going in regards to staffing, in regards to projects, in regards to council’s strategic plan and in regards to upcoming events,” he said.

Applications for CAO position are being accepted until Friday (Sept. 23). McRae said the district has received around 50 resumes and that he will be working with council and Manson to ensure the right person for the job is hired.

“I will start to whittle the short list for council to consider and then Mr. Manson and I will sit down and review those applicants that I’ve gone through to get a sober second look at it,” he said. “Then Fred will take over the torch and present them to council and then council will move forward with those recommendations.”