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RMOW eliminates Policy and Program Development division

General Manager position eliminated
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Organizational restructuring has begun at the Resort Municipality of Whistler.

As part of the restructuring led by Mike Furey, Chief Administrative Officer of the RMOW, the position of General Manager of Policy and Program Development has been eliminated. Mike Vance, a long-term RMOW employee, is no longer with the RMOW as a result of the organizational change.

It was reported on Monday (Jan. 27) and confirmed by Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden that Vance had taken a leave of absence.

Wilhelm-Morden said that the rest of the RMOW staff would pick up the work Vance was doing.

"I would like to recognize Mr. Vance for his work with the organization on behalf of the resort community,” Furey said through a news release.

According to the news release published on Thursday (Feb. 2), the organizational structure review currently underway at the RMOW is designed to "implement the optimum management structure for the organization."

The news release went on to report that more changes to the responsibilities of the RMOW General Managers is still being reviewed. The organizational structure review currently underway will include a departmental review following the review at the General Manager level.

Vance started working for the RMOW in August of 1978 after coming to Whistler with his wife, who was hired to manage the Highland Lodge. In 1982, Vance moved over to the Whistler Village Land Company, a subsidiary of the municipality at that time. In 1983, when the provincial government took over the land company, Vance went to work for Blackcomb to plan the development of the Benchlands. He returned to the RMOW in 1985 to get the Parks Department started. Two years later he was named Director of Planning.

When Mammoth Lakes needed a Director of Planning in 1998, that community hired Vance and relocated him to California. Vance spent five years in Mammoth and returned nine years ago to take a newly created position with the RMOW, as the General Manager of Community Initiatives. In that position Vance was reporting directly to then Administrator Jim Godfrey, who has since retired.

Vance's mandate at that time included completing a Comprehensive Sustainability Plan, overseeing a number of community projects and managing some Olympic related initiatives.

Pique attempted to reach Vance for comment without success.