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New manager to focus on Nanaimo’s emerging public safety crisis

May 24, 2018 | 5:17 PM

NANAIMO — The City of Nanaimo is looking for some leadership in a department that is becoming less about parking tickets and more about frontline interactions with the surging homeless population.

The City’s human resources department said the new position of manager of community safety will focus mainly on overseeing bylaw staff, with a directive to improve community safety and security. A job posting on the City’s website said the manager will play “a significant role in downtown revitalization.”

Karen Fry, Nanaimo’s fire chief and acting director of public safety, told NanaimoNewsNOW the role of a bylaw officer has shifted dramatically, no longer focusing on complaint-driven issues and parking regulation.

“These people now are spending a lot of their time dealing with the people that are aggressively panhandling or sleeping on the streets…And then as well as the squatter camps and the distress they’re causing to the parks they’re living in due to a lack of housing.”

Fry said she’s glad the new position will be filled soon, saying her current duel role has been very challenging and the fire department is “definitely feeling the stress” of her extra workload.

“Public safety has grown a lot in the last year-to-two years with the amount of homelessness we see in our town. With the amount of drugs, fentanyl and safety-related mental illness we’re seeing on a daily basis across the city, not just in the downtown core.”

Fry said the City needs “to focus resources” on the public safety issues cropping up all over Nanaimo. She said the spending and initiatives committed to by Council aren’t going to solve many issues or create long term solutions.

“We have to come up with some strategies to be a bit more proactive, not just reactive. I think that’s a big switch with bylaws. Sometimes instead of being a bit more reactive and complaint-driven…(We need) enough resources where we can actually go out and tackle issues before they’re reported to us.”

In September 2017, the City fired the bylaw manager, shuffling those duties, along with public safety, into the portfolio of the chief operations officer. However, months later the COO was also let go, leaving Fry to handle the roles on an acting basis.

While the COO position was not included in the 2018 budget, community safety manager was. The City said it will have a salary ranging between $105,000 and $131,000.

The job posting closes on May 25.

 

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi