Prince George Coun. Brian Skakun is calling on Initiatives Prince George and the City of Prince George to disclose the severance pay and benefits provided to outgoing IPG president Tim McEwan.
However Mayor Shari Green disagrees.
"I'm not uncomfortable with them releasing that information," she said.
The city should continue to allow IPG's board to manage the agency without interference from council, she added.
The city's economic development agency announced McEwan's resignation on Jan. 30. Last week IPG chairperson Glen Wonders said the agency would not disclose McEwan's severance package.
On Monday, Wonders recanted, saying the arm's length municipal agency will comply with a Freedom of Information order.
The Citizen has filed an FOI request with the city and IPG; however Skakun isn't convinced an official request is warranted since IPG is taxpayer funded.
"I think it's unfortunate that anybody had to file an FOI [Freedom of Information request] to find this out," he said.
The city and its economic development agency have no legal grounds to hide that information from the public, Skakun said, citing four rulings by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner indicating wages, bonuses and severance packages of public employees is public information.
"I think it's clearly in the public interest for these types of severance, to know what they cost. Their remuneration should certainly be in the public realm. Maybe IPG doesn't understand the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act."
In a Dec. 7, 2011 ruling, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner adjudicator Michael McEvoy ordered the City of Prince Rupert to release the severance agreement between the city and its former corporate administrator.
"Several previous orders have found that severance and related agreements concerning public body employees constitute 'remuneration' under [the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act]," McEvoy wrote in his ruling. "This means that disclosure of the requested information is deemed by law not to be an unreasonable invasion of the personal privacy of a third party, and the city must not withhold the information..."
In previous rulings, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner determined similar arm's length government agencies like ICBC are subject to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Green is not convinced. She said IPG is managed by a board of directors who are charged, through a service agreement with the city, to operate the agency - including human resource management.
"This is a volunteer board that is managing this, and they're doing the best they can. It's a bit of learning curve for everyone," Green said. "If we have councillors that are interested in having something done differently, they can do that... through a motion at council that gets supported, and then is debated in public. That hasn't happened, to my knowledge."
Veteran city councillor and former finance and audit committee chairperson Coun. Murry Krause agreed, saying the city should continue to allow the IPG board to manage its human resources without political interference.
"The relationship between Mr. McEwan and IPG is between those two parties," Krause said. "[But] I think it would be good if this was laid to rest."
Current city finance and audit chairperson Coun. Cameron Stolz declined to comment.
Councillors Lyn Hall, Garth Frizzell, Frank Everitt, Albert Koehler and Dave Wilbur could not be reached for comment as of press time.
