A severance package for the city’s director of inspection services who was caught renovating her house without a permit “can have challenging optics,” according to a University of B.C. professor of organizational behaviour and human resources.
Carli Edwards, City of Vancouver’s deputy chief building official, quit Dec. 10, received a lump-sum payment equal to six-months salary and outplacement services. Last year, Edwards was paid $137,676.
Marc-David Seidel of UBC’s Sauder School of Business said many factors are involved in whether an organization fires an employee or accepts a resignation over misconduct.
“The severity of the breach, then also their history of past behaviour: are they regularly warned?” Seidel said. “Under dismissal laws, showing dismissal for cause, you sometimes have to give warnings prior to actually being able to fire someone. They might have wanted to have relief quickly rather than going through a warning cycle.”
City manager Penny Ballem said Edwards was cooperative and took responsibility after a whistleblower complaint was received Nov. 21.
“At that point then it was clear to the city she could not carry on in her position,” Ballem told the Courier. “She offered her resignation and we negotiated with external legal advice appropriate terms under these circumstances.”
Edwards, a 17-year city employee, was a parking management engineer until 2011. Ballem said she had an unblemished record of leadership and positive contributions. “In the context of our review of the case law and the legal advice we received (from the firm Roper Greyell), we would have been quite vulnerable had we tried to terminate her,” Ballem said.
In 2012, the city paid $1.13 million in severance to 13 people, including $211,828 to ex-planning director Brent Toderian. Last year, it paid out $333,000 to six people.
Ballem wouldn’t say what the renovations were or when they took place. The Courier compared an August 2011 Google Street View photograph of Edwards’ house on the north side of the 800-block of East 32nd Avenue with a photograph shot Dec. 11. The porch and stairs are now noticeably wider and a metallic pipe has been installed in the chimney.
The only permits on file with City of Vancouver’s development office were for wiring a security alarm system (2005), drainage piping (2009) and gas fitting for a water heater (2012). Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C. records show Carli Edwards bought the house in 2003 for a declared $312,000 value with her husband Scott Edwards, the manager of street activities for City of Vancouver’s engineering department. The property was valued at $779,267 this year, up from $740,167 in 2013.
Ballem said the settlement did not include a non-disclosure clause. Edwards, however, did not return Courier phone calls. Scott Edwards answered the door Dec. 11 and told a reporter “she doesn’t have time” to comment.
Community services general manager Brenda Prosken announced the resignation in a Dec. 10 staff memo that also said building and trades inspection would be transferred to Planning and Development under general manager Brian Jackson. Property use inspections, compliance coordination, licensing and animal services would remain within Community Services.
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