Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain has resigned from his position with the Prince Rupert School District and will be turning his full attention to his role at city hall.
“I’ve been doing full-time mayor’s work at the moment and every day have been doing work with the school district. What would happen is I would go to work, but then be pulled out for city business and I didn’t feel this was fair to my employer,” Brain said, noting he is done with his current job at the end of this month.
“I’m doing it because it needs to be done ... we have so much going on in town that for us to hit the mark we could be hitting, I need to be available in a full-time capacity.”
Brain gave his notice on Feb. 1, shortly after the idea of making the position full-time came up at a meeting of council, but the mayor said that had no impact on his decision.
“Regardless of what council decides I am going to do this because I am passionate about the position and I am having fun doing it,” he said.
“This isn’t about getting more money for the job. I knew what I was getting into and I knew it was going to be a lot of work ... I can get by on the wage the mayor’s position pays now.”
The idea of changing the mayor’s pay to reflect the full-time nature of the job was brought up on Jan. 12 by Coun. Barry Cunningham, but tabled until budget discussions take place later this year.
“I believe right now we have too much going on so the mayor should be here a little more than two or three days a week and working on weekends when other people aren’t available ... In the last month and a half so much has changed and so much more is coming at city hall and city council that I really think these things have to be addressed,” said Cunningham at the time.