The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»School Board's new media specialist starts work as planned Aug. 1 despite criticism about his ties to Vision Vancouver.
Kurt Heinrich, who volunteered for and worked with the political party for two years, was hired by the school district last week. Monday he was still a member of Vision Vancouver. He first told the Courier he would let his membership "lapse" because it was no longer appropriate. He then called the Courier saying he sent a note to cancel his membership and he won't belong to Vision when he starts his new job.
Heinrich is currently employed as an account manager with Peak Communicators, a firm that's done work for the VSB.
Superintendent Steve Cardwell, Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»school board chair Patti Bacchus and two other senior staff were on the VSB's hiring committee. The human resource department checks applicants' references and qualifications, the committee provides feedback on candidates, and the superintendent makes the final decision.
NPA trustee Ken Denike describes Heinrich as a "Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» political operative" and argues his appointment is "unacceptable."
Heinrich has targeted the NPA through Twitter.
A June 3 Twitter post read: "@SuzanneAnton apparently doesn't much like the environment - votes against retrofit prgm to cut energy costs. Why Suzanne, Why?! #NPAwkward."
Heinrich has since erased this tweet, along with other politically themed posts. He told the Courier Monday that he's focused on the job and not what other people are saying.
He maintains his performance will speak for itself. "The tweets were from a previous position when I was not working at the VSB. Now that I'm working at the VSB, I'm going to be really focused on being completely non-partisan and doing my best to tell their stories," he said, while acknowledging he erased past Twitter entries. "It's important moving forward that I appear and I am as non-partisan as the role requires me to be and I'm going to be focused on doing that and part of it is just making sure that perception aligns with what I'm doing."
Denike said he's discussed his concerns about Heinrich's appointment with Cardwell and plans to raise the issue with the Ministry of Education. Denike said he wasn't told about Heinrich's relationship with Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»when the hiring was announced. "This is highly political. This is politicizing the board. The credibility of anything that comes out of it is going to be questioned."
Bacchus argues Denike shouldn't make public comments about VSB staff. "It concerns me that anyone who may be considering applying for a position with the VSB is now going to be worried that they will be coming under attack for their previous whatever, for political purposes of elected officials and that's just inappropriate," she said.
Bacchus insists the hiring process was transparent and she didn't make the final decision. "I did know Kurt before. I knew actually several of the candidates before," she said.
Bacchus said Heinrich disclosed his Vision connections, but she wasn't aware of his Twitter feed. Bacchus said she thought Heinrich's ties to Vision might cause a problem "from an optics point of view," but said his qualifications and interview performance made him the front runner.
The decision to hire Heinrich raises questions about whether a job candidate who has allied himself with a political party can or should be appointed in a non-partisan publicly funded position.
"That's always a question, particularly in the field of communications and public relations and media and politics because there does seem to be some cross pollination that happens. It's been a question for journalists, for communications, for political operatives since I was in that business 25 year ago," Bacchus said.
Cardwell also maintains the process was a "completely open competition from start to finish" and that of all the applicants, Heinrich was the best suited for the job.
Twitter: @Naoibh
