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RMOW seeking new chief administrator

Bill Barratt to step down June 30
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The search is on for a new chief administrative officer for the RMOW.

Bill Barratt, who has been in the position since 2005, will retire this June.

"The position is posted internally and we encourage people within the organization to apply, but at the end of the day it's the best applicant in a nation-wide search," said Mayor Ken Melamed, the only person on council who has already been through the process of hiring a CAO.

It's likely the process will take three months or so.

"(Barratt's) done an exemplary job," said Melamed.

"Whistler has been very, very fortunate to have two such professional and talented individuals in Jim Godfrey and Bill Barratt after him, since 1996."

It was never a goal of Barratt's to become CAO when he started with the RMOW 29 years ago.

It evolved as organically as these things can while climbing the governmental ladder. He worked hard. He earned the trust and respect of his peers and the community. In 2005, with a stint as director of parks and recreation under his belt, as well as a turn as deputy administrator during the Olympic bid, council hired him as CAO.

"The CAO position was five interviews and they went national," Barratt said at a small press conference Tuesday. "It was a pretty rigorous thing I went through to get the position that I did. I was comfortable here. It's a pretty hard place to leave, actually."

The RMOW confirmed Barratt's retirement on Friday following a flurry of Twitter and Facebook posts about the news. Barratt said Tuesday that he would stay until the end of June to give council ample time to hire a replacement.

"Certainly it's something that I have contemplated for some time," he said Tuesday.

He was hired in 1982 as parks foreman, and as he worked his way through the ranks of the RMOW was at the helm of Whistler's development from a rural mountain town into a resort rife with amenities for locals and visitors alike, including the Valley Trail system, Meadow Park and Village North.

As administrator, Barratt, 58, was pointman when the municipality upgraded the wastewater treatment plant and during the move to composting. He also helped secure Whistler's watermain water supply with a new treatment centre on Alpha Lake Rd.

Under his tenure, many employee housing projects went from being visions to reality. And, of course, he was instrumental in achieving the success of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"He's been a heavy lifter with the municipality for I don't even know how many years he's been there," said former mayor Drew Meredith who worked with Barratt during Meredith's brief stint at the RMOW in the late 1980s.

"A real heavy lifter and very involved with all facets of the growth of the municipality."

Barratt was "excellent" to work with, Meredith said, "which is not an easy thing to say. Administrators are not generally nice people, just because of the nature of the job, but I would say Bill is one of the more friendly administrators I've met over the years."

"Whistler's different than a normal municipality," Barratt said. "It's a resort and with that comes real demands for service levels."

He added that collaboration and partnerships are key to success in the job as well as being fairly strategic and maintaining relationships with other levels of government. These are all things he plans to talk over with the next CAO.

Also on the agenda for those chats?

"I was going to say, 'thick skin' but that was just a metaphor," said Barratt.

"That goes without saying."

That thick skin has certainly helped Barratt get through the past year, particularly in dealing with harsh community criticism over the municipality's handling of the asphalt plant and, more recently, the 2011 budget process.

"I'm certain he's done some great things for Whistler over the decades but I think the way our debate was handled and mismanaged, he needed to step down." said Tim Koshul, who was at the forefront of the asphalt plant debate.

"His time was done."

Koshul requested Barratt's resignation last year following a press conference the CAO held in regard to the asphalt plant.

"We understand that not everyone is comfortable living near an asphalt plant, and those people will have to make their own decisions if they want to live there," Barratt said at the time.

If the debacle had anything to do with his decision to retire, he didn't let on Tuesday. He said council had known about his plans to retire following the Olympics since they were elected in 2008.

Barratt spent many of his years working with former CAO Jim Godfrey, before he moved to take over the 2010 Olympic Games portfolio.

"He's help build Whistler and I think there's a lot of recognition that should have gone Bill's way over the years that hasn't, but his contribution will be a lasting contribution and it will be enjoyed by our residents, second homeowners and, just as important, our visitors," said Godfrey interviewed this week.

"...The day that he walks out that front door, the municipality will lose a lot of its corporate memory. I think that's an important point. He'll be missed and he'll be hard to replace."