The Municipality of the Village of Lions Bay seeks a Chief Administrative Officer to join and lead a small municipal services team serving an engaged community.

THE PLACE
Lions Bay’s 1400 residents cherish their Village on scenic Howe Sound, 30 minutes north of Vancouver on Highway 99.  The Village – the people and the place – comprises a K-3 primary school, a community hall and municipal offices, a marina, cafe and general store, hiking trails, beaches, and 550 mostly single-family homes with the 6th-highest property values in BC (and commensurate resident expectations).  The municipality operates on a $3.0 mil. annual budget.  Municipal operations under the CAO comprise six inside staff (CFO and a small team of unionised part time and full time administration staff), a small team of unionised public works staff (four full time and part time seasonal) reporting through a PW Manager, and a 30-member volunteer fire department trained to professional standards, reporting to a Fire Chief.  Many other quasi-official groups also fall within the municipal ambit: Search and Rescue, ESS, Bear Smart, Age Friendly Programs and so on.

THE ROLE
As in most BC municipalities, Lions Bay’s CAO is the link between municipal operations and Council, and the residents Council represents.  Lions Bay’s residents are more involved with the municipality than in larger communities, and the CAO must be able to proactively and positively engage them, since community input and volunteer effort are core to providing services and amenities.  Budget, resource and regulatory realities mean that Lions Bay’s CAO must seek efficiency wherever it can be found, while following the same reporting and operating rules as municipalities several orders of magnitude bigger.  Council is today focused on addressing infrastructural challenges, making the Village sustainable in the long run, providing open government and communicating well.  Council members are not career politicians, but volunteers who love the Village.  They take their responsibility for oversight and stewardship of the Village seriously.  Lions Bay needs its CAO to be energetic and creative in order to guide Lions Bay through continual change.  Lions Bay’s CAO must be a experienced, knowledgeable hands-on municipal generalist, a tactical executor, an expert time and project manager, an entrepreneur, and a diplomat.  A CAO’s success in Lions Bay will depend as much on their cultural fit with Mayor, Council, staff and residents, as on their skills and experience.  In short, Lions Bay’s CAO needs to love the Village too.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Recent role in a smaller Canadian municipality as a CAO, Corporate Officer, senior manager or similar role.
Formal educational qualifications in public administration, planning, law, political science or similar, plus ongoing training and updating.
Proven ability to produce results within a unionised staff environment.
Excellent written and spoken communication, to a variety of audiences.
Full PC familiarity, with advanced-spreadsheets, web publishing and social media a plus.
Experience with contracts including negotiations, drafting and reviewing of RFPs, FOIPPA, planning, infrastructure, Community Charter, Local Government Act….
Experience liaising and negotiating with stakeholders including local MPs, MLAs, provincial and federal ministries and utilities.
Soft skills focused on interpersonal dynamics, keeping many files open, attention to detail, empathy, a good memory and a cooperative attitude toward the widely varying needs of stakeholders.