Carli Edwards, Vancouver’s deputy chief building official responsible for upholding the city’s building bylaw, resigned after she was caught doing a minor renovation on her home without a building permit. Photograph by: Vancouver Sun
By Jeff Lee,
December 11, 2014, Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER – Carli Edwards, whose job was to uphold Vancouver’s building bylaw, has resigned after doing minor renovations on her home without a building permit, City Manager Penny Ballem said Thursday.
Edwards, who had been Vancouver’s deputy chief building official for nearly three years, voluntarily resigned from her $137,676-a-year job and was given six months’ severance after she co-operated with an investigation that started with the complaint of an internal whistleblower.
Ballem said Edwards had done a small renovation to her principal residence, but failed to obtain the proper permits. As the official with statutory power over the bylaw and building inspection department, the transgression was serious even though the value of the work was minor, Ballem said.
“When you are the statutory officer that is responsible for enforcing that bylaw, it is a much, much higher level of scrutiny and significance, obviously,” said Ballem, who received the whistleblower’s complaint Nov. 21.” Read more…