Fighting fire with fire is not a management technique that new Fire Chief Jason Whiteley employs. He is calm, well-spoken, and by all indications will lead the fire department for many years to come.
As much as the City of North Bay went to great lengths in recruiting Whiteley, the interest was mutual. The goal was a chief's position, preferably near where his family owned land in northern Ontario.
"I love this area. I am in this for the long haul," said Whiteley decisively. "The city and the department have treated me so well, this has been a great move for me and my family."
The revelation that taxpayers are paying two men to do the same job, and the recent furor in the city over Chief Grant Love's six-month paid vacation to finish out his career has not surprised the new hire, but Whiteley points out that Love was within the established guidelines for utilizing his accrued time in this manner.
"How long do you want to go without a full-time Chief? It's a management philosophy that there should be an overlap," between an outgoing and incoming senior manager.
Picking the brain, so to speak, of the departing Chief allows the newly-hired person to find out about the culture of the department and the issues facing the service so that there is a smooth transition period.
"That is the proper way of doing things. Being mentored by the outgoing Chief and then being allowed to put your own spin on it," is a valuable part of the transition, said Whiteley.
However, in this case, despite the overlap, there has been no mentoring period. Due to Chief Love's vacation, Whiteley admits that he has "just taken over. I have not had a chance to meet with Chief Love."
Asked about banking vacation hours to the point where months of owed time accrues, Whiteley responded that he is in favour "of taking your vacation when it comes up, because you need a break, to be fresh, and to manage. However, that vacation time (Chief Love's) was time-off that was earned, it just happened to take advantage of (the practice) of being able to carry-over all that time."
"That's not an issue for me to decide, that falls under the CAO's," purview said Whiteley. "I know the City has some policies on it, and there is probably going to be," some discussion about the practice.
Said Whiteley, "For me, I think it's important as a manager, especially a senior manager, that you get those mental breaks so that you can properly manage your workforce. Everybody's going to have a different opinion on it.
"For me, if I don't refresh, I'm going to burn myself out. I'm not going to have the ability to be objective and work with my people the way I need to, and as the director, be on top of everything, as far as education, what's happening in the province, but also for my own personal life, both mentally and physically.
"Sometimes things happen with the city, when you're a senior manager, especially in the fire department, you're on-call all of the time. There may be times that because of issues going on in the city, and the demands of senior management, sometimes you may not get a break," said Whiteley.
"A lot of organizations have clauses, that with certain approvals," time can be carried over, observed Whiteley.
"I can't comment on what the City did before I was here, how (vacation) time was accrued, it happened, and because it happened they were probably in a bigger need to move somebody into my position.
"The City looks at it as minimizing the time without leadership at a high position. We're not talking supervisor level, we're talking the head of a department. You don't want to go too long without someone steering the ship," said Whiteley.
