Less than two months after the municipal election that saw Mike Bradley re-elected as Sarnia mayor by a large margin, the city's chief administrative officer [CAO] is leaving.
The new Sarnia council, in its first regular meeting since the election, emerged from an in-camera meeting Monday afternoon to announce that it has "mutually agreed to part ways" with Margaret Misek-Evans effective December 31, 2018.
Her last day in the city's top administrative office will be December 20, 2018.
BREAKING - Mayor Mike Bradley reports out of closed meeting that the council has "mutually agreed to part ways with Chief Administrative Officer Margaret Misek-Evans." Her last day will be December 31, 2018. Her last day in the office will be December 20, 2018. #SLont
— Melanie Irwin (@MIrwinCHOKNews) December 17, 2018
"We'd like to thank Ms. Evans for her years of service and wish her well in the future," said Mayor Mike Bradley.
When asked if a severance package was given, human resources manager Jim Crawford said he could not comment.
Crawford also declined to comment on whether Misek-Evans negotiated a severance package prior to the new council being sworn in December 1 -- as reported in a story posted online by the Sarnia Journal over the weekend.
Crawford said discussions about her departure began at a December 3 closed meeting.
"We [staff] were directed to proceed with looking at some kind of amicable departure for the CAO and for the last week we've been working on that and it was finalized tonight," he said. "We'll start the process immediately, in terms of getting a replacement for the CAO, and I would expect that to be posted within the week."
Crawford said an ad has already been posted to recruit a new city solicitor and another will be published this week for a director of finance.
Mayor Mike Bradley and councillors Dave Boushy and Brian White, the only members of the 2014-2018 term re-elected in the October 22 election, declined to comment any further than what was reported on Misek-Evans departure from the closed meeting.
Councillor White told Blackburn News that a non-disclosure agreement had been signed.
Misek-Evans was hired as city manager effective October 21 of 2013.
During the previous council's four-year term, the relationship between the mayor's office and the chief administrative officer fell apart.
Council imposed various sanctions against Bradley after a third-party workplace investigation report, released October 7, 2016, found he bullied and harassed four senior staff members, including Misek-Evans. -With files from Dave Dentinger