A newly elected councillor for the City of Nanaimo has quit his day job because provincial legislation precludes him from holding onto it.
Tyler Brown, formerly an intergovernmental liaison with the Regional District of Nanaimo, ran in the recent municipal election and was voted to city council on the strength of 14,935 votes. However, the B.C. Local Government Act states local government employees who wish to run for office must take a leave of absence during their campaign and resign if elected.
Brown tendered his resignation prior to the City of Nanaimo inaugural council meeting on Nov. 5 and was among councillors named as an RDN board director at that meeting.
Brown said that he knew going into his campaign that resigning was a possibility and is comfortable with the decision. He said he can focus his time on being a full-time councillor and director.
“I think the reality is that the workload today for a Nanaimo city councillor, and especially one with an RDN appointment, is between committee work and the public expectation and being available to the public, it’s important to have full-time representatives giving their all to the city and to the matters that face us,” said Brown.
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Regional district committees have not been formed yet, but Brown does hope to have a seat on some of them. He said he can play an important advisory role to both regional district board and council committees.
“A big thing for me, during the campaign … was that we do need to revisit the effectiveness and efficiency of our transit system, so at the RDN level I think there’s a real opportunity to apply my urban planning background and my knowledge of transit systems to hopefully contribute in a positive way to make our public transit system more effective,” Brown said.
Brown’s work experience will be beneficial, he said.
“In my last role with the RDN as part of the strategic initiatives department, we definitely [took] a broad view of all the RDN functions and services, so I have a pretty good understanding of how each department works and the processes associated with that and then I think just general governance experience,” said Brown. “I’m not going to be having to learn processes and how things unfold at the regional district level.
“With that said, it is sitting in a little different capacity, so there is a learning curve there around decision making and that sort of thing.”
Along with Brown, Mayor Leonard Krog and councillors Erin Hemmens, Sheryl Armstrong, Ben Geselbracht, Jim Turley, Don Bonner and Ian Thorpe will represent the city on the RDN board, with Zeni Maartman acting as an alternate.
The RDN board’s inaugural meeting is tonight, Nov. 13.
reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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