Toby Seward, the City of Nanaimo’s acting senior director of strategic operations, has retired after 29 years with the municipality.
Seward, who previously held the Colliery dam file as acting general manager of community development and protective services, retired from the City of Nanaimo today (June 14), becoming the latest non-unionized employee to exit the city workforce since the start of 2015.
John Van Horne, the city’s director of human resources, previously reported that in 17 months a total 47 people left the municipal workforce, including 15 non-unionized employees, such as managers.
Seward, as well as Geoff Goodall, director of engineering and public works, and Jason Birch, the city’s manager of information technology, can now also be added to the list. Goodall has taken a position as the Town of Ladysmith’s director of infrastructure services, according to a press release from that municipality. Van Horne said Birch has taken a position with the Municipality of North Cowichan.
Van Horne said he can’t predict or control when people choose to leave and the city is preparing for those eventualities, with succession planning, training and development. He also said it is a time of change at the city with a new council that’s undertaken a core services review, hired a new chief administrative officer with organizational realignment.
“A lot of change is happening here and it’s not uncommon for people to reevaluate career goals in a time like this,” he said.