Big change is on the horizon for Langley as a plethora of both elected city officials and top staff members will be leaving their positions.
Mayor Tim Callison announced his resignation last month, but only one candidate has stepped forward so far to replace him.
Monica Felici, Langley’s finance director and city clerk, said that, as of Thursday afternoon, Thomas Gill was the sole candidate who applied.
There were other inquiries about the position, Felici said, but she has received no other letters of interest other than Gill’s.
The deadline to apply for the job of Langley mayor is the end of the day Tuesday, June 15.
The council will appoint the new mayor.
Gill is currently in the middle of serving his second term on the city council. If he is appointed by his fellow council members to the position, a new council member will need to be chosen to take his place.
In addition, three seats on the city council are up for grabs this year since incumbents Dominique Emerson, Peter Morton and Christy Korrow will not be seeking re-election.
Craig Cyr, the fifth member of the council, said it is daunting to potentially have four new council members within a six-month period.
“I would not have guessed I would be the senior member on council two years into my term, that’s for sure,” Cyr said.
In addition to Callison, the city’s director of community planning is also resigning. Brigid Reynolds, who has held the position since 2016, said she is stepping down for personal reasons and to focus on her health.
The COVID-19 pandemic, she explained, has helped her re-examine priorities. She said she would like, for example, to spend more time with her aging mother.
Reynolds will be finishing out the month of June working full-time. After taking July off, she will return in August to assist the city on a part-time basis for an undetermined amount of time. If he is appointed mayor, Gill said he would consider extending the offer of part-time work to Reynolds beyond August. A new director of community planning is currently being sought.
“I’m really grateful to have been working here and doing the work that I have because it is a pretty special little community,” Reynolds said.
She is especially proud of work she has done with incremental code changes made around housing that have made it easier to allow multiple accessory dwelling units in Langley.
Just last council meeting, council members approved an ordinance regarding multi-family code, something Reynolds said is “pretty darn innovative.”
Stan Berryman, the city’s public works director since 2014, vacated his role with the city when Callison made the decision to eliminate his position last month.
Callison explained that he made a decision to do away with the position while he was looking at staff realignment. No large street projects were left, and instead the department was focusing on utilities projects.
“That kind of made Stan’s position superfluous,” Callison said.
Callison said Berryman was not fired, but that a mutual agreement was reached regarding the termination of his employment.
That agreement was reached May 9, according to Callison. Berryman left his position about two weeks ago.
Gill said he had heard Berryman had resisted making needed changes in his department.
Berryman could not be reached for comment by press time.
It will be up to the new mayor to decide whether to bring back the public works director position or to have a director of public utilities. Gill suggested in that case, the city wouldn’t hire somebody new but would instead promote an existing staff member within the department.
Even with all the new adjustments, Gill said he is not anxious about the city’s future.
“I’m not nervous, I just know that in the new year regardless of what happens there’s going to be a lot of education that’s going to happen,” he said.
“Far too often people run for an office without knowing what the job entails or without being privy to knowing what’s going on,” he added.