The City of Regina has fired its director of planning and sustainability.
Bob Bjerke was removed from his post Thursday, his former boss confirmed today.
"We're just changing the leadership in the department," said planning and development general manager Jason Carlston. "We just feel that, at this point, that's what we need."
Carlston refused to discuss details of the firing for privacy reasons, but said there was no impropriety involved.
Bjerke, an employee of the city for the past decade, held the director position for two years and played a key role in drafting and implementing the city's downtown plan.
A successor has yet to be named, but Carlston says the department is in good hands.
"We have a full complement of managers in the area and a skilled management team will be running it," he said.
Carlston says the city will search for a replacement "in the very near future."
Bjerke is the second senior manager at the city to lose his job in recent months, following the departure of transit director David Onodera in December.
However, Carlston says those leadership changes are not signals of a broader shakeup in the upper echelons of city hall.
"In a large organization such as the city, this type of event isn't entirely uncommon," Carlston said. "It's just coincidental that these two (firings) happened close to each other."
City officials say the firing of Bjerke won't have any impact on the upcoming review of Regina's official community plan or any other projects.
