By Katie Ryan
A chair at City Hall sits empty now. On Monday, Roger Brekko resigned from his position as Lloydminster’s city manager – a role he has held for more than 30 years.
“After careful consideration of the emerging strategic priorities for the city of Lloyd, City Council decided on taking a new direction. We felt the city would be best led by a new city manager,” said Mayor Jeff Mulligan Wednesday morning.
“In having that discussion with Roger, (that) we are going in a new direction and we believe that a new city manager would be the best one to lead us down that path, Roger offered his resignation knowing that he served at the pleasure of city council.”
Brekko resigned as of May 10 to pursue “new business interests.”
Until a new city manger is hired, for the interim period an internal management committee has been formed, comprised of the city’s four directors: senior director of corporate affairs Tom Lysyk, director of planning and public works Adam Homes, director of finance Don Newlin and director of parks and recreation Corwin McCullagh.
“First and foremost it’s going to be a very inclusive organization because for the next many months we are not going to have a city manager,” said Mulligan.
“Of those four directors three of them will form a quorum and they will have the full authority of the city manager. Just by virtue of that you are going to open the door to broader discussion around key decisions that would have been made by the city manager.”
In three months Mulligan said the city will have “a new proposed organizational chart structure.”
“We will know precisely what we need in a city manager and at that time we will likely post and recruit for a new city manager,” he continued, adding he expects Lloydminster will have a new city manager in six months.
“We are quite comfortable with that, we have long term people in the directors’ roles and for the directors this is an opportunity for them to shape the future of the city.”
Mulligan said the community will have an opportunity to celebrate Brekko’s contribution to the city in the near future.
“We want to acknowledge and certainly celebrate almost everything you see in Lloydminster, touch and enjoy, Roger’s fingerprints are on it and when you figure 31 years he was the city manager, he had a tremendous effect and his legacy will be felt forever,” said Mulligan.