Lisa Spitale has become the first woman to fill the top spot at New Westminster city hall.
After a national executive search, the City of New Westminster has appointed Spitale as its new chief administrative officer. Spitale, currently the city's director of development services, will assume her new role on June 1.
"That has huge pride for me, huge pride as a woman. That one is really an important milestone to me as a female because I recognize there are still challenges for professional women," she said. "I think when we achieve that level, I think it's something we look to and think one day it will be fantastic when it is a non-issue across the board, but it still isn't. It means a lot to me as the girl that grew up in East Vancouver, immigrant parents and she's achieved, quite frankly, the pinnacle of her career. That means a lot to me as a woman and as a mom. A lot. The fact that even with my sons I can turn around and sort of say, mom did it."
Spitale lives in Burnaby with her husband Michael McAllister, the city's former solicitor, and her two sons, Liam, 13, and Josh, 19. She grew up in East Vancouver, the eldest of two daughters whose father came to Canada from Italy on his own at the age of 14 in search of a better life.
After obtaining a bachelor of arts (political science) and a master of arts (planning) from the University of British Columbia, Spitale worked in the private sector for five years. She began her career with the City of New Westminster as a planner in 1992, was promoted to assistant director of planning in 1996, and became the director of strategic services (overseeing business and liquor licensing, economic development and bylaw enforcement) in 1999.
"I just think it's an incredible opportunity to try and lead an organization like this, to lead an organization that basically runs the city," she said about becoming chief administrative officer. "It's an amazing city, it's an amazing organization. What a privilege it is to be able to run a city like that. I have always wanted to try for this job."
Although Spitale has worked for the City of New Westminster for two decades, her career hasn't been without its rocky patches. After one municipal election, many local pundits predicted she would be on her way out; others have questioned why she didn't move on to a larger city.
"One of the things I have always said is that when you are in a small organization like this you have to be entrepreneurial. If you like being entrepreneurial and you like being a generalist with lots of opportunities - and some people don't - but if you do, you'll have no better organization to work in than this one because of the chances and the opportunities you will get," she said. "That's what it's always been for me."
During her time with the City of New Westminster, Spitale said she's been fortunate to have been given opportunities to deal with a diverse range of issues including slum landlords, homelessness, grants for heritage restoration, liquor licensing, zoning, policy work such as the downtown official community plan and the affordable housing strategy, and negotiations that netted the city $60 million in casino funds for community amenities.
Spitale said it's been rewarding to work in a city where you can see the tangible benefits of your work, and where an "entrepreneurial, let's give-it-a-shot attitude" is appreciated.
"Here, because we are so small that when there is a priority, it's either sink or swim. People are always here to help you swim. People pull together, they stop what they are doing and they will give you a hand. That is why as much work gets done here as it does," she said. "When you are so small and you have the number of priorities you have, you have to know that you can rely on each other and other staff have your back."
Spitale was named director of development services in 2007, at a time when morale was low and staff vacancies were at an all-time high.
"It was important to focus on building up the staff teams, supporting the staff team and getting the kind of public policy that in and of itself helps carry the city's direction," she said. "It worked. I think the morale in our department is high. Productivity is super high."
As city administrator, Spitale said she'll work to ensure staff has clarity on council's priorities and the tools needed to get the job done on priorities such as
finishing the Anvil Centre, selling the office tower, continuing with the Westminster Pier Park development working to create a more robust economy and provide efficient city services.
"I'm really up for the challenge. I think it's a really exciting time," she said. "There's a lot of hard work that's gone into this city, this community to get the kind of momentum we're having. I think you have to understand that, you have to respect it and build on it."
Spitale has a deep respect for New Westminster and a desire to balance the needs of a changing community.
"In this community, there are certain things that I think are New Westminster isms," she said. "I think a New Westminster ism is to have a deep profound love of our history, it's ours. We covet our traditions. That is a New Westminster ism. There's a whole world that goes into that. It's everything from our small town charm, the fact that people know each other."
While these are "wonderful New Westminster isms", Spitale said there's another side to the city - a city that has always been incredibly proud of its important role in the province and the region. That includes being B.C.'s first capital and a major commercial centre for the Fraser Valley in bygone years - and the civic pride that came with those prominent roles.
"People look at a lot of the growth right now see in the same way," she said. "The fact that the downtown is a growth concentration area, well the downtown was always sort of been that for the city. So more growth is happening there, in many respects it's almost a continuation of what has always been the city's DNA."
Hired in 1992 to look at downtown revitalization and to get a better understanding of why the downtown wasn't taking off, Spitale quickly discovered that the downtown was suffering because of systemic challenges relating to addictions and poverty and street-level nuisance behaviors. Until the city took positions on homelessness and civility issues, she said it couldn't properly address issues of livability or economic development.
"When the downtown started to slide, I think it had broader impacts than it was just a commercial area - I think people started changing their perceptions of New Westminster, almost exclusively with what happened to downtown," she said. "I think the city recognized if we wanted the downtown to be the economic engine again, rather than a drain, we had to have real concerted effort on the downtown. Until we can start dealing with some of the core issues of the downtown, the belief was the other areas would suffer because of it."
Spitale said the view of the street shaped people's perceptions of the city as a whole - including the 300,000 motorists passing along Columbia Street each year. With more residents now living in the downtown and perceptions of the city improving, Spitale said its time to focus on employment.
"That's going to be a big focus for me - employment generation, economic development, but really employment generation from the perspective of what do we do as a city now to start keeping the jobs that are here, attracting new jobs and expanding and creating a more robust economic base. That will be a really big focus of mine. It's a really big focus of city council."
Paul Daminato retired as city administrator earlier this year, after 10 years in the most senior staffing position at city hall.
"We began our search for a new chief administrative officer last October and were very impressed with the high calibre of candidates who applied," said Mayor Wayne Wright. "In the end, we found the perfect candidate right here within our organization."
