The City of Revelstoke has retained the services of former interim CAO Ron Mattiussi to take a leadership role at the City of Revelstoke’s Development Services department, this after current Director of Development Services, Marianne Wade, is away from work on leave.
However, the details of the changes remain unclear and the mayor, the city communications department, and all but one councillor have declined to respond to questions about what the change means for ongoing planning processes under development.
Wade last appeared at city meetings in November, including a Nov. 9, 2021 meeting where council opted to rescind a proposed short-term rentals policy to explore other options. Wade has been involved in brief but tense exchanges with councillors at several recent council meetings, particularly with Coun. Tim Palmer, a former City of Revelstoke CAO who was elected in a February 2021 by-election.
The city did not announce the change, and the city communications department has declined to respond to our questions about what happens next, saying the issue was a personnel matter it would not comment on.
Revelstokemountaineer.com reached out to the mayor and city council to find out what happens next for the several ongoing planning processes the department is engaged in. One councillor, Coun. Tim Palmer, responded. He said he would try to get the city to communicate about the change. “Although information on employees is restricted, I would like a more definitive statement by the city,” Palmer wrote in a text.
Mattiussi will work on a part-time basis in a lead role in development services. Mattiussi works through his company, R.L. Mattiussi Advisory Services Inc. He was a planner and City Manager at the City of Kelowna, and his bio notes 28 years of municipal government experience “at a senior level.” He now works as a local government consultant.
The short-term rentals plan is one of several significant City of Revelstoke long-term planning projects led or co-led by the Development Services department that are mid-process, including the Official Community Plan, the city’s overall zoning bylaw, the Grizzly Plaza renovation, and the Development Cost Charges update. Some of these processes have seen significant public and stakeholder input over the past few years.
Concurrently, Mattiussi is listed as the Approving Officer on the Village of Lytton’s website. Until as late as November, he was interim CAO of the Village of Lytton, where he had been called in to help with rebuilding the community after it was destroyed by wildfire this summer.
Mattiussi served as interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) in Revelstoke in the summer of 2021. His appointment announcement said one focus would be hiring a permanent CAO. The city first announced a successful candidate, then a week later, another statement said the new hire had changed his mind.
Successful CAO candidate James Thackray’s hiring was announced later in September 2021. Thackray has now brought Mattiussi back on board in an advisory role. In council’s recent decision to change course on short-term rentals policy, the paperwork on the documents were signed by Thackray and an assistant planner, with no signature from Wade.
The exact nature of Mattiussi’s contract and employment status isn’t clear. When contacted, he said he was serving a ‘mentoring’ role and it was fulfilling a commitment he made when he hired. “When I left I said I would help out if needed,” Mattiussi wrote in a brief email response.
We asked follow-up questions requesting details on the length, terms and cost of his role but Mattiussi didn’t respond.
The transition plan and next steps for the ongoing community planning processes hasn’t been the subject of any city public communication that we’re aware of.
Analysis: A significant change of plans for Revelstoke city
The OCP and zoning bylaw are critical to Revelstoke’s future trajectory and the change will interest many organizations and individuals who have participated so far.
As has been the case with past senior staffing changes, the city’s default instinct is to not say anything, citing legal principles such as not commenting on personnel matters. However, while it may be wise not to address certain topics such as personnel issue, that doesn’t preclude the city from proactively communicating with stakeholders on other things, such as the plan moving forward with its planning processes.
Wade was hired in November 2018, soon after the current council was elected. The planning processes the development services department is undertaking were major objectives of several current councillors during the election cycle. It’s fair to say that at the outset nobody was planning for a staff change midway through them, especially in the run-up to the Oct. 15, 2022 B.C. municipal election.
In the short-term, elected representatives face pressure to complete some of the processes they promised to champion before before election season comes. Essentially, all the planning processes are behind schedule, and ones that may come to completion could do so in a summer election environment. Remember the Development Cost Charges controversy in the summer of 2018?
What will the new approach from leadership be? What are the new timelines for these processes? Will there be a rush to wrap up these processes with an eye on the election clock? Does this signal a new direction for the processes? These are a few of many questions for local leadership, but for now city staff and council are not saying.
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