CITY HALL – Byron McCorkell to become new CAO ‘as an interim measure’
Byron McCorkell.
Byron McCorkell has gone from deputy and acting to chief administrative officer of the City of Kamloops. It will become effective Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024.
An announcement today, Oct. 11, said it was “an interim measure.”
McCorkell has been the acting CAO for the past several months since David Trawin went on extended leave for personal reasons.
McCorkell has been with the City since 1999, when he was hired as the parks and recreation director. His role has gone through several changes, including parks, recreation and cultural services director, community and protective services director, and deputy CAO, the latter appointment in December last year.
He has been acting CAO since March.
“I am honoured to accept this role and to continue serving the residents of Kamloops,” said McCorkell. “It has been a privilege to work with the dedicated staff and leadership of this municipality, and I am excited to take on this responsibility and help move Kamloops forward.”
He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in the late 1980s with a Bachelor of Physical Education and Bachelor of Arts in Geography, parks, recreation and Leisure Studies. During his time in Saskatchewan he excelled at football and track and field.
Earlier this year, he was suspended by Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson but quickly reinstated by the rest of council, who expressed strong confidence in him.
Today’s news release states he will become the new CAO “as an interim measure” but doesn’t indicate if that description will be removed at some point, simply allowed to lapse, or if the job will be opened to competition.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I firmly believe this is about apples and oranges, “Apples: McCorkell; Oranges: McCorkell (although McCorkell will tell you that he knows nothing about the oranges and is not quite sure what the ‘apples’ reference means, so it too might not be attributed to him either, nor in what he says…).
LikeLike
can someone please explain what the difference is between “acting CAO” and “interim CAO”?
LikeLike
Salary level maybe?
LikeLike
Ok. Now is the time for the city to release all the cost associated with the failed bylaws officers job description debacle. If it is in the range of the school district accounting issue , maybe the scape goat who was let go should not be alone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe this is comparing apples to oranges but some tension exists in my understanding of two situations.
Just a couple of days ago, was a female staff member released from employment at a school district as a result of the loss of some $2 million for an “accounting error”?
Yet, was there a loss of “more than $2 million” within a public corporation as the result of the job loss of unionized bylaw services officers and the person responsible for this was promoted?
Maybe this is comparing apples to oranges but some tension exists in my understanding of two situations.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So who appointed Mr. McCorkell interim CAO as there is no mention of who in this article, as I suspect that the council did this without going through the proper procedure or proto call plus trying to stack the deck against the Mayor.
This council should remember what goes around comes around and bites you big time.
LikeLike
McCorkell cost city taxpayers $millions in legal fees and damages due to his wrong-headed, autocratic changes to the Community Service Officer job descriptions.
SD73 fired its treasurer for a much less costly mistake.
TRU, with a much smaller budget than the City, has embarked on a nation-wide search for a new president.
City Council must employ this option or at least advertise the job position and require McCorkell to compete for it.
The taxpayers of Kamloops pay our CAO about $300,000/year.
Many have grave doubts that McCorkell will give taxpayers their money’s worth.
Council should actively search for the best person for the job.
LikeLike
The cost of the dispute with the union over the CSO restructuring has never been revealed but McCorkell was quoted in the media as saying it was a “fraction” of the numbers speculated about in social media.
LikeLike
That’s not exactly accurate, when McCorkell said the cost was a fraction of the speculated $5 million cost he wasn’t specifically speaking about the entire costs. He left himself some wiggle room as it wasn’t clear if he was speaking about direct employee costs such as severance or costs in their entirety which would also include legal and accounting fees on behalf of the city and the union which the city had to have paid since they lost the arbitration, along with the costs associated city staff working on the file and related expenses in addition to the rather costly expense of paying for the arbitrator and his staff.
For transparency, I’ll admit I was the one who came up with the $5 million number which was bandied about on social media. I took the legal and accounting fees which the TNRD paid in there investigation as basis for the city legal/accounting fees, added 2/3rds of that number for the unions legal/accounting, added an estimated severance total, a ball park arbitration fee based upon other community settlements and a few other incidentals and came up with almost $4.5 million to which I wrote the settlement is in the $4-$5 million range which soon morphed into, up to $5 million.
LikeLike
(1) Having been a PR writer for 15 years, I know how sophistry works. 1/10 is a fraction. 9/10 is also a fraction. Guesses on social media ranged from $3 million to $7 million. Which of these figures did Mr. McCorkell pick as a basis for his “fraction” comment?
(2) A new wage agreement followed fast on the heels of the CSO settlement. It’s possible that some of the CSO arbitration settlement was forgiven by the union in favour of a generous wage increase or other perks for all.
(3) Mr. McCorkell should have known that the city was entirely in the wrong to change the job descriptions and a legal fight would be doomed to fail and needlessly cost taxpayers since the Community Charter Sec.150 states, “In the event of a conflict between terms and conditions of employment established by municipal bylaw, resolution or policy and those established by a contract of employment or collective agreement, the contract or agreement prevails.”
(4) In the interest of transparency, Mr. McCorkell should have quoted real numbers, including the legal costs to city taxpayers, of protracted legal wrangling and reparation payouts to those laid off due to the illegal changes to the CSO job descriptions.
LikeLike