The District of Oak Bay is on the hunt for a new chief administrative officer following the departure of Mark Brennan.
Brennan, who had been with the municipality for three years, reached an agreement in mid-February that would see him “pursuing other interests,” said Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen.
“After a period of discussions and reflection (Brennan) and Oak Bay council agreed this was an opportune time, given the fact that our community is facing challenges. … But also (Brennan) was at a stage where he wanted to move on to other opportunities,” Jensen said. “That set the stage for us to agree with him this would be a great time to see a new administrative leader for the municipality.”
Some of the challenges Jensen mentioned involve the Official Community Plan process which the municipality is working through, along with the work council and staff are doing on the strategic plan for police services, the heritage plan and the creation of an Active Transportation policy.
“We’re a vital and changing community, so the task of the new CAO will be to take all of these plans and translate them into action,” Jensen said.
The district hasn’t begun the hiring process for the position Jensen said it may take four to six months before a full-time replacement is selected.
“We’re likely going to do something like we did when we hired our police chief,” he said. “We hired a retired police chief from Saanich who looked after the department for about six months while the police board sought a full-time replacement.”