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City of Revelstoke bringing bylaw enforcement in house

Moved comes after Commissionaires terminate their three-year contract with the city
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Commissionaires document the site of a grease barrel that was knocked over by a bar outside a Revelstoke restaurant last year. ~ Revelstoke Review file photo

The City of Revelstoke is bringing its bylaw enforcement officers in-house after the Commissionaires terminated its contract with the city.

“They were having trouble keeping the positions filled,” said Dawn Low, the city’s director of corporate administration.

The city posted job ads for one full-time and one-part time bylaw compliance officer officer on Thursday morning.

Low said the city decided to bring the jobs in-house instead of seeking out a new contractor so they could have more control over the positions.

“Mostly because we wanted to have a little bit more control over hours and dates so that we could use them in situations in the evenings and early in the morning and on weekends and make them more flexible,” she said.

The job posting calls for some flexibility in hours worked during peak tourism months, from June to September and December to March. It says the officers will work 35 hours per week over five consecutive days from Monday to Sunday, between the hours of 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Low said she will have the authority to direct when the officers will work so they can undertake enforcement after hours. “The flexibility is important,” she said.

The Commissionaires cancelled their contract 15 months into a three-year, $409,370 deal with the city.

Low said wages for the two new positions will come out to $95,000, but there are other costs to bringing the contract in-house, such as purchasing another vehicle.

“We’re going to try and come in at the same budget we had for the Commissionaires,” she said.

The new employees will be represented by the city’s main employee union CUPE Local 363. Interestingly, the existing officers had an attempt to unionize quashed by the Labour Relations Board earlier this year.

Low did not know if that union drive had anything to do with the Commissionaires cancelling their contract.

The Commissionaires have yet to return a call for comment.