Shortly after Penny Ballem was hired as Vancouver city manager seven years ago — but long enough after she had the chance to put her stamp on the organization — two mid-level bureaucrats were passing each other in the hall and one said to the other, “How you doing?” The other replied, “I’m sleeping like a baby. I wake up every two hours and I cry.”
There is no doubt that Ballem made her mark on the city administration. She was, as one long-time senior employee observed, “brilliant in many ways.” But she could be a relentless bully, a screamer and a demanding micro-manager. Tuesday’s press release from the mayor announcing Ballem’s departure, which notes she was “driving transformative change across the organization,” hardly begins to describe her aggressive approach.
What was once a fairly flat administrative structure became extremely hierarchical.
Nothing, and I mean not even the smallest detail, got to council without her scrutiny. For some staff report writers presenting material to council, it seemed pointless to put anything down on paper given that she would change it anyway.
The information flow that existed between senior managers and inquiring journalists for the past several decades, came to a dead halt. Until recently, everything had to go through the dead zone known as “Corporate Communications.” It was a department that exploded in numbers and at one point had 32 employees. In fact, there were more people frustrating the demands of media than there were gardeners taking care of the city’s extensive parks system.
Her leaving would come as a surprise to many city hall watchers, even though it had been rumoured for months, if not years. A number of folks recall Mayor Gregor Robertson saying privately that she would be gone after the last election.
Sources tell me Robertson tried to get council support to unload her after the election but couldn’t at that time.
But the fact is most people figured the Vision council would never listen to the growing avalanche of criticism.
Her most disastrous hirings or promotions included Brenda Prosken as general manager of community services — a nice person who was way over her head. And, of course, Brian Jackson, the head of the planning department who announced he will be leaving at the end of the year.
Between Jackson’s hiring and his management style, and Ballem’s heavy-handed treatment of that department, planners were demoralized and left in significant numbers after watching much of the creative energy in their department smothered.
They became part of an external lobby group, including former senior planners Ray Spaxman and Scot Hein, who loudly proclaimed the city had lost its way and was more interested in money it could get from developers than any sense of design.
Even though Ballem publicly supported Jackson, he leaves a mere three short years into his first five-year contract, according to those close to him, because he could not stand Ballem.
If Vision is forever grateful to Ballem for anything, it was her Herculean effort to get them out of the messy financial tangle around the Athletes Village left over by the NPA.
That said, there is at least indication she was pushed out. Robertson said, “Our city’s toughest challenges will benefit from a new approach and a fresh perspective.”
His announcement also notes, “In accordance with her contact Dr. Ballem will receive severance of $556,000.” That would be about 18 months’ pay, and, as I understand it, it would only be paid if the city chose to break her contact. Expect that the city also bought a confidentiality agreement with that settlement. So nobody will say anything.
The timing of her leaving seems awkward. It leaves the city with three major positions either unfilled or filled temporarily. The head of engineering Jerry Dobrovolny is an interim posting although he is considered quite competent. As I said earlier, Jackson, head of planning, will be leaving in few months, and then there is Ballem’s spot now being filled by deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston who has mostly been limited to the city’s Greenest City Agenda.
So will Penny be missed? Perhaps by a few. But I suspect more will be relieved than disappointed and there will be whole departments where there won’t be a wet eye in the house.
@allengarr
