Tag: Bill Cochrane

With the pending retirement of Oak Bay’s Chief Administrative Officer William Cochrane, Oak Bay Council now has the task of finding somebody to fill his rather large shoes. Bill, who has worked for the municipality for 30 years, 18 of them as Chief Administrative Officer, has been a major factor in how the municipality has operated over those 18 years, given his longevity.

The posting on CivicJobs contains this interesting phrase:

Candidates must have demonstrated an exceptional ability to provide measured, well-considered advice under pressure in a public setting.

I think this sentence quite neatly sums up what is the likely the most challenging part of the job: providing advice to council at committee of the whole and council meetings. The number of times I have seen council ask Bill a tough question in the past year must number in the dozens and while I have been frustrated with the compromises he comes with, he never fails to give a reasoned answer.

So I wish the Mayor and Councillors Jensen and Herbert (Update: Braithwaite will be sitting on this committee, not Herbert) luck in finding somebody to fill Bill’s shoes. They don’t have much time, as these things are counted, as Bill plans to retire in May after the budget comes down.

Yesterday evening the mayor announced that in a few months, shortly after the budget, Bill Cochrane, the CAO for the Municipality of Oak Bay for the past 10 years will retire. It isn’t clear to me how long he has worked for the municipality, but 10 years is the lowest number. Recent shakeups in the past year at Victoria and Vancouver city halls senior levels have caused changes in culture, especially in Vancouver, so what effect it has on a smaller municipality should be interesting to watch. Councillor’s Jensen and Herbert (Update: Braithwaite will be sitting on this committee, not Herbert) with the Mayor will be leading the search for a replacement.