An early Christmas present found its way out of Vancouver City Hall just over two weeks ago when its newly minted mayor Gregor Robertson gave then-city manager, Judy Rogers, walking papers, and replaced her with Dr. Penny Ballem.

Why Ballem, B.C.’s former top health care bureaucrat — who was just recently working in the private sector — took Terminal City’s top mandarin job remains unclear, save for a vague city news release that accompanied the shakeup.

According to the Dec. 12 release and backgrounder, the move “supports the new Council’s agenda for change at City Hall.”

Rogers, for her part, received “a severance package in line with her 20 years of employment with the city,” according to the CBC report on the shakeup.

She was paid $292,066 plus $16,801 in 2007 for her stewardship of Vancouver’s operations, according to the city’s fiscal 2007 financial statements (page 56).

But Ballem, who was B.C.’s Deputy Minister of Health between 2001 and June 2006, worked with billions. Vancouver, as $900-million operation, pales in financial comparison. A question remains, however, about whether her civic compensation will match either her predecessor’s or that of her former job in the capital.

Part of the province’s fiscal 2005-2006 Public Accounts information (page 11) show Ballem was paid $230,958 along with $74,767 in expenses during her final full year on the province’s payroll.

The City of Vancouver’s news release also regurgitates that B.C.’s Ministry of Health oversees about $12 billion — currently.

Ballem left the BC Liberal government health care vision behind in 2005, but was hired in the spirit of riding waves of change. Her resignation letter read, in part:

In 2001, you hired me into government to help you reshape and rebuild our health care system…

The plans you and your deputy minister have established are unsound and reflect a lack of confidence in my leadership on your part…

The Canadian Press-obtained letter is available online here.

A source had told fullstop.ca in 2007 that Ballem had also refused a gag-for-cash agreement after she quit her post.

What is clear is that Ballem’s range and scope of her responsibilities have increased (sanitation takes a different form from hospitals to city sewers), but the magnitude has lessened itself. Statistics Canada Census data shows Vancouver formed 14 per cent of B.C.’s 4.1-million residents in 2006.

Rogers’ former pay, and Ballem’s as a deputy minister, are similar. But Rogers lasted 20 years at 12th. and Cambie. Ballem lasted about four years as a provincial deputy — and that’s considered senior, as top-dog provincial bureaucrats tend to have lifespans lasting often only as long as government fortunes do.

Ballem’s c.v. is impressive enough to make more elsewhere, like the private sector. So why take risk on Vancouver city council’s “agenda for change”? And who gets to write up her value-for-money assessment as she works with another body of politic — one that may change its stripes wholly again in three years?

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