Anmore Coun. Tim Laidler said he will resign his position on council because he does not agree with the method in which the village selected its new chief administration officer.

He stated in a letter that the process for selecting Tim Harris, the new CAO, was not transparent and had considerable interference from "outside sources." Laidler also questioned the chosen candidate's ability to perform the duties required of a CAO given the person's experience and education.

"I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support a CAO/Approving Officer who was not selected on the basis of best practices, higher education and extensive relevant previous experience," he said. "I also expect a selected candidate to have taken college level courses pertaining to municipal government."

In an interview with The Tri-City News, Laidler said he could not comment on specifics of the selection process because all of the deliberations were done in-camera. He does believe, however, that some of the private information was leaked to people outside of council, which may have influenced the process.

He added he does not take issue with Harris' selection, but said the process was not conducted in a fair an open manner.

With slightly less than two-and-a-half years to go in the term, Laidler's decision will force Anmore residents to go to the polls sooner than scheduled.

According to Mayor Heather Anderson, the cost of a byelection is approximately $8,000 to $9,000, the equivalent of a 1% property tax increase.

Laidler said he would have difficulty remaining on council with a CAO he felt was unqualified.

"I would have had to work with somebody that I believe is not qualified," he said. "I would have had to sign-off on some of the decisions made by that person. I'm not prepared to do that."

Anderson said she was shocked when Laidler announced his resignation during Monday's council meeting.

"It was completely unexpected," she said. "I did not see this coming."

Anderson said she did not know what was meant by Laidler's statement that "outside sources" interfered with the selection process.

She also rebuffed his assertions that Harris is not qualified for the job.

She said Harris has served as the manager of public works for several years. He has also been acting CAO since February and took on several planning functions after another staff person passed away several months ago.

"This is really unfortunate for Tim Harris," Anderson said. "He has been working very, very hard for our municipality. To go from being offered the job to having this overshadow everything is unfortunate."

Laidler came in third out of four council candidates in the 2011 byelection, taking 523 votes. He has lived in the village since 1995.

gmckenna@tricitynews.com