George Harvie is out as CAO of Delta.
Mayor Lois Jackson confirmed the longtime top city bureaucrat has cleaned out his office and left. Details from an in-camera meeting won't be discussed publicly.
Jackson noted Harvie will be using accrued vacation days he has owing in advance of his scheduled retirement next May.
“He’s a fabulous person and CAO and no one could have done what he did in conjunction with staff for the last 17 years,” she said.
Jackson said the abrupt departure means top staffers - parks and recreation director Ken Kuntz, engineering director Steven Lan and finance director Karl Preuss - will alternate as CAO until a full-time replacement is chosen. Jackson, who isn’t running for re-election in next October’s municipal election, said it will be up to the new mayor and council to select that person. She noted the newly elected council would want someone they feel “compatible” with as they begin a four-year term.
A Tsawwassen resident for over 40 years, Harvie joined the Corporation of Delta as CAO in 2001. Prior to that, he spent more than 30 years with the City of Burnaby in a variety of senior executive positions, including deputy city manager.
He worked with council on a plethora of major issues over the years including the fight to keep Delta Hospital’s ER, the Southlands development to Delta’s lobby effort to save the George Massey Tunnel Replacement Project.
Last month he announced he’d be retiring next May.
Last year, he was given an award from the International City/County Management Association in recognition of his 45 years of service to local governments.
