Sticker shock for City of Penticton’s CAO sendoff

PENTICTON – A going away party for Pencticton’s former city manager is raising a few eyebrows — including the mayor’s — after the bill for the event was tallied up.

The farewell bash for Annette Antoniak at the Vault Restaurant on Feb. 12 cost taxpayers $1,400 for food and beverages.

Penticton Mayor Andrew Jakubeit admitted to sticker shock upon hearing the cost of farewell.

“It’s important to have sendoffs to show appreciation for employees and their service to the community, but moving forward I think we’re going to have to find better, cost-effective sendoffs that are less burden on the taxpayer,” the mayor said.

Jakubeit said the event was put it together without a lot of advance notice because Antoniak hadn’t provided much notice she was leaving. He said about 40 people attended the reception.

“There were probably three or four appetizers, some snack trays, beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages,” Jakubeit said.

He said it's sometimes difficult for people to rationalize an expenditure like this, describing Antoniak as someone who had saved taxpayer “significant money” in her over four years with the city.

“I was more than a little surprised at the cost of this event,” he admitted. “Lesson learned, we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Antoniak was subject to some controversy during her tenure, stemming from comments made in some letters to the editor in local media.

Her annual salary in 2011 was $160,665.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.