Prince George has fired its manager of bylaw services.
By email, a city spokesperson confirmed that “Charlotte Peters is no longer employed at the City of Prince George,” but declined to comment further or provide an interview on the subject.
However, Mayor Simon Yu told The Citizen in a phone interview that he first heard about Peters’ departure from his fellow members of council as well as rumours floating around town.
“Based on the information I got from my fellow councillors, it was termination,” Yu said. “It’s not voluntary, it wasn’t exactly the way she wanted to leave.”
He said he discussed Peters’ departure with city manager Walter Babicz after hearing about it from other sources but was not told the reasons behind it.
“The bylaw dismissal never ever came up because I believe, in (Babicz’) opinion, that’s administration’s employee,” Yu said.
“Mayor and council, we only have one employee, which is (Babicz). Therefore, it’s not my business, right? That’s how I took it, because I was never in any way informed about Charlotte’s departure, other than hearing from my councillors and from rumours.”
With Peters no longer at the city, Prince George is about to lose two major department managers with Julie Rogers recently having submitted her resignation effective Jan. 31.
The mayor said he’s worried about two high-profile female employees leaving the city’s payroll in quick succession.
“I don’t know if there’s maybe a cultural issue, I need to take a look at it,” Yu said.
With budget deliberations taking place on Monday, Jan. 20 and Tuesday, 22, Yu said he’d like to hear whether the vacant positions can be filled through internal promotion rather than external hiring to potentially save some money.
The Citizen reached out to Peters for comment through a social media account but did not receive a response.
