Unofficial sources say Jamie Burke won’t be Tantramar’s 1st CAO
Warktimes has learned unofficially that Jennifer Borne, current Chief Administrative Officer in Dorchester, will become the CAO of the new municipality of Tantramar.
Borne, who has been Dorchester’s CAO for more than four years, was formerly a business development officer in the Town of Amherst.
A message today from the province said that a CAO for Tantramar has been selected, but did not mention her name.
So far, Warktimes hasn’t been able to reach either Jennifer Borne or Sackville CAO Jamie Burke, who was a leading candidate for the top administrative post.
Mayor Shawn Mesheau hasn’t responded to a phone message asking for comment.
CHMA’s Erica Butler reported last month that the province had enlisted HR consultant Jennifer Murray Consulting to oversee the hiring process and it’s understood, the province has accepted the consultant’s recommendation to appoint Jennifer Borne.
Burke, who has been Sackville’s CAO for more than two years, served as senior manager of corporate projects for six years before taking over the top job from Phil Handrahan.
Borne will likely take office as Tantramar’s Chief Administrative Officer on September 1st.
He should never have become CAO to begin with…thank God some ppl are smart enough to realize this!
Best news we have heard to date.
I first thank Mr Burke for his service to this town – you’ve given your best. . And congratulations to Ms Borne – welcome to the snake pit. A thankless job and you’ll have a challenging time confronting the spit givers. Ignore the nay sayers, critics and gloom and doom people – it might allow you to enjoy your off time (if that really exists).
Thank you for his Service….he has done this town a disservice with all his sneaky ways, SFD has become the laughing stock of the town….who would want to join SFD now??? I for one am glad that he will not be the new CAO but god only knows what position they will create for him…..unfortunately.
Thanks for you precise insight anonymous person
Best news regarding this town in quite some time.
I agree completely with Mike Gallant. Thank you for your efforts Jamie Burke. I have been in Sackville for 30 years and worked with many of the CAO’s and staff on various committees and projects. The amount of abuse and vitriol that has been spewed out is embarrassing. For putting up with that alone Mr. Burke should be thanked. I can think of few people that would be able to deal with that in their workplace. The personal attacks in particular make you wonder why anyone would take on the job. Especially when the majority of naysayers have never put their names forward to run for office or get involved on committees or take any positive action to better the community beyond throwing stones from the sidelines. We as a community will not progress and grow unless we can move beyond this sort of negative behaviour.
Congratulations Ms. Borne. I can only hope you will be shown respect for the work you do.
You said better than me Rob – much respect.
I’m with you 100% Rob. Jamie and his staff were and continue to be extremely helpful with the committee work I’m doing for the RHAG. It’s embarrassing, but also extremely disappointing to witness the abuse, personal attacks and quite frankly, read the childish comments. It’s really not the Sackville I know and love.
Congratulations to Jennifer Borne .One of the best executive officers I have had the privilege of working with as a councillor. But People, people please stop throwing slings and arrows at Jamie Burke the unsuccessful candidate. Put your poison pens down for it tarnishes not only the successful candidate, but your fellow citizens. One can now be magnanimous in Victory without humiliating the vanquished.
“wonder why anyone would take on the job”
I imagine the CAO salary range, $96,367 to $128,489 (the highest rate on the town’s payroll) is some inducement to endure the complaints of local citizens about the lack of transparency in their town’s governance.
The really thankless jobs are the elected ones. They get complaints too but get paid a pittance, far less than 10% of what the CAO receives.
So because of money we can treat them like shit? Great take.
That’s about the stupidest comment I’ve ever heard. The more money you make, the more abuse you have to take? I do agree however, that our partime elected officials are underpaid.
Although I understand other commenter’s disdain for negative remarks made about Mr. Burke’s performance while employed with the Town of Sackville, his actions in some cases do present some legitimate concerns for the taxpayers of Sackville.
In his position as CAO, Mr. Burke tried to have a town by-law revised so that he could effectively define who is and isn’t a legitimate journalist. This appeared to be an attempt to discourage Mr. Wark (a retired professional journalist and journalism professor) from asking questions of town councillors and staff about important issues so that Sackville residents were kept informed. Because of all the negative feedback about this proposal that was received from Sackville residents and several councillors, this ham-handed attack on freedom of the press was halted and Mr. Burke had to withdraw his proposal.
Then there was the apparent conflict of interest on the part of Mr. Burke regarding the morale issues with the Fire Department. These issues would not have come to light if not for Mr. Wark’s reporting. Among the many complaints made by present and former Fire Department members was the failure of town officials, including Mr. Burke, to respond to their requests for help in dealing with harassment and bullying issues within the Fire Department. Although Mr. Burke was personally named in the complaints, he was the individual who hired Montana Consulting to perform a workplace assessment regarding the complaints, and then controlled what parts of the report were released to town councillors and fire department members. It is hard to understand why no town councillors expressed concern about this potential conflict of interest.
I am sure that Mr. Burke has provided excellent service to the town in most aspects of his roles in senior town management, but these particular issues should definitely be a concern for town councillors and Sackville residents. He is after all in a public position that is paid for by taxpayers so he should expect to receive scrutiny for questionable actions taken by him during his tenure.