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District of North Vancouver CAO David Stuart has won a spot on Port Moody council by a razor-thin two-vote margin following a recount.
He says he doesn’t see any problem taking on an additional municipal role as elected councillor for the City of Port Moody.
“I don’t foresee any divided loyalties,” said Stuart this week, after being confirmed Monday as a councillor elect in Port Moody.
“I’ve been active politically in Port Moody for 20 years,” as president of his community association, said Stuart. “None of this is going to be new to me.”
Stuart said in order to minimize any potential conflicts of interest, as councillor he won’t be sitting on any regional committees and boards, where Lower Mainland communities can sometimes find themselves in competition.
Stuart added he also won’t be doing any council business during his working hours with the District of North Vancouver.
Stuart, 66, is a longtime resident of Port Moody, where he ran on a platform of having a strong official community plan that has the support of the community.
On the North Shore, however, he’s best known as a top civil servant, who’s been chief administrative officer of the District of North Vancouver since 2008. Before that he was CAO of West Vancouver from 2000 to 2007.
The pressing issues in Port Moody – climate change, housing, transportation – aren’t that different than the ones on the North Shore, or in many other Lower Mainland communities, said Stuart.
As a condition of his employment contract, Stuart said he discussed his plans to run for office with District of North Vancouver mayor and council prior to making that decision and was given their approval.
He added he has no plans to retire from his role as CAO in the “foreseeable future.”
“At some point I’m going to retire,” he said. “But I haven’t fixed that date yet.”
District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little acknowledged this week the district would have to be cautious if there were any circumstances where the two municipalities were directly dealing with each other. But he said he wouldn’t expect that to happen very often.
Little said he also thinks Stuart has the ability to manage both his full-time job in North Vancouver (where Stuart earned over $292,300 last year) and his part-time councillor role.
“That’s not without precedent,” he said, adding many municipal mayors and councillors also have full-time or part-time jobs outside of their political roles.
Gerald Baier, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said being an elected councillor while also working at the top job for another municipality is unusual.
Current Metro Vancouver CAO Jerry Dubrovolny was elected to New Westminster council while he was a manager at the City of Vancouver. (Nine years later he opted not to seek re-election as a condition of accepting another senior position at the City of Vancouver.) Delta mayor George Harvie was formerly the CAO of that municipality, although the positions didn't overlap.
Councils traditionally rely heavily on information from their senior staff in making decisions, so it will be up to everyone to tread carefully in areas of potential conflict, he said.
But Baier added most of those circumstances would only come up in regional roles – which Stuart has already ruled out.
Baier added it’s likely Stuart’s experience in the municipal arena was one of the factors that made him an appealing choice to Port Moody voters.
“He’s allowed to have outside interests,” said Baier. “You wouldn’t want to discourage people from running for council.”
Stuart said this week he’s looking forward to the challenge of his two civil roles.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting experience, and I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to continuing to serve North Vancouver district residents.”
