HALIFAX—The municipality appears to have paid out more than $300,000 in extra compensation to two high-profile former Halifax employees.

This week, Halifax published its annual statement of compensation, commonly known as the Sunshine List — a list of all the municipal employees who were paid more than $100,000 during the previous fiscal year.

The compensation detailed in the Sunshine List, according to the municipality, includes all salary and wages, plus “all overtime payments, retirement or severance payments, lump-sum payments and vacation payouts.”

Two employees who left the municipality’s workforce in late summer or early fall last year — about halfway through the fiscal year, which begins on Apr. 1 — were among the highest-paid, and made significantly more than the year before.

Bob Bjerke was Halifax’s chief planner and director of planning until municipal chief administrative officer Jacques Dubé fired him.

Bjerke had been criticized for not being responsive enough to the local development industry, but Dubé was also criticized for abruptly firing someone seen as a progressive planner.

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In fiscal 2016/17, Bjerke made $171,348.80 in salary. In fiscal 2017/18, he made $206,062.56.

Bjerke was fired on Aug. 22, 2017, meaning he worked less than five months in fiscal 2017/18, and made $34,713.76 more than the year before.

If Bjerke was being paid the same salary as he was in 2016/17, he would have only made about $66,000 by Aug. 22. This suggests Bjerke was paid more than $140,000 in severance.

Another municipal employee appears to have left with an even bigger cheque.

Amanda Whitewood was Halifax’s chief financial officer till sometime in September 2017 when she left on leave and eventually did not return.

Earlier that year, Whitewood filed a complaint against Dubé after he sent his employee a bizarre text message.

As reported by CBC and the Coast, Dubé sent Whitewood an expletive-filled text message in February. The message was apparently Dubé’s own take on an article that appeared on the satirical website The Beaverton about a man who loves winter.

The story that Dubé wrote featured fabricated quotes by Whitewood fantasizing about killing him. Whitewood responded, “What the heck is this?” Dubé said, “My sense of humour.”

Whitewood filed a complaint against Dubé, and the issue largely went away, shrouded in secrecy, but so did Whitewood.

The municipality never announced she’d left or why, but Whitewood starting working for the IWK as its interim chief financial officer in late September 2017 following an expense scandal at the children’s hospital.

Whitewood was on leave from the municipality until she became the IWK’s first chief operating officer on Apr. 2, 2018, confirming that she wouldn’t be returning to the municipality.

Municipal spokesperson Nick Ritcey said Whitewood’s last official day was Apr. 2, 2018. Jerry Blackwood became acting chief financial officer on Oct. 2, 2017.

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In fiscal 2016/17, Whitewood made $202,035.45 in salary. In fiscal 2017/18, she made $278,033.15.

If Whitewood worked for the municipality till the end of September and was being paid the same salary as fiscal 2016/17, she would have made about $100,000 in salary so far that year.

This suggests one of two scenarios. Either Whitewood was paid by the municipality while working for the IWK between October and April — and then received an extra $76,000 afterward — or she wasn’t being paid while on leave, and received nearly $180,000 in extra compensation.

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