Kevin Cormack, Nelson city manager

Kevin Cormack enjoys the challenges and diversity of his work as city manager for Nelson, B.C.

Kevin Cormack has been city manager for Nelson, B.C., since 2006. — Photo courtesy Kevin Cormack

The city manager of Nelson, B.C., finds his role challenging, diverse and, as he said, super interesting.

“I get to meet people from a broad spectrum of interests,” said Kevin Cormack. “They’re trying to move things forward—housing, street culture, economic development, communication. We have such good energy in Nelson, with people who are passionate about supporting and improving the city.”

Cormack was born and raised in Cranbrook, B.C., and educated in Calgary, Alberta. He’s worked in public service since 1995, first with school districts in Gold River and Trail, and then as chief financial officer in Nelson in 2002. He has been the city manager there since 2006.

We asked Cormack about his strengths, his achievements and his plans.

Even after 14 years with the City, is there something about you that people might not know?

After attending university, I spent two-and-a-half years of my career in New Zealand with a chartered accounting firm, and I was able to spend time in Australia and Tahiti as well. My middle child was born in New Zealand, so she’s a little Kiwi.

What are the strengths you bring to your position?

I’m able to develop a strong team and grow people around me. I like change and innovation, I’m creative, and I come up with new ways of looking at old problems.

Please tell us about something you’ve achieved as city manager.

I’ve been able to focus both council and staff on strong planning across the organization. We’re also actively implementing the achievement of those plans. One example is our 10-year-old Waterfront Master Plan. The consultants we work with are very impressed with how far along we are. Often, in other communities, the progress is much slower.

It’s easy for us as administrators to put forward the plan and identify the rates that are needed, but it’s the mayor and council that have to be brave enough to implement the rate changes. It takes political will to raise the rates to the level they need to be at to do the infrastructure or other upgrades that are necessary.

People don’t usually like to pay those increases, but because the Nelson community sees how we manage the additional funds, and that real projects have been happening as we said they would, they are supportive.

What’s on your agenda for 2017?

We’ve completed a neighbourhood sustainability plan for the Railtown area, and the Chamber of Commerce has already upgraded the old CP station house to a brilliant new building, creating vitality in that area.

We’re doing some upgrades in Cottonwood Park, improving the area for the farmers market. Izushi, Japan, has been our sister city for 30 years as of 2017, so the Izushi Friendship Society is looking at making some improvements to celebrate that.

We’re also looking at making a Public Realm Plan for downtown. It’s now been more than 30 years since the original revitalization of the downtown happened, and we need to take it to the next level. One of the priorities was to create a better pedestrian link between the downtown and the waterfront along Hall Street, and we completed Phase 1 of that a year ago. The streetscape improvements include benches, trees and wider sidewalks.  We’re hoping to get grant funding that will allow us to start Phase 2 in 2017.

We’re seeing development happening in the downtown for the first time in 30 years, with the Nelson Commons project coming on board. There are lots of exciting, visible improvements happening as we go forward.

What advice would you have for the city’s government?

Understanding the direction and plan that’s been already set is really important. The current mayor and council came in understanding the planning that’s been done, and they’ve stayed on track with moving the community forward. They ran on a ticket of continuing the good work that was done in the past, and I think that has been really valuable.

How would career success look to you?

A solid understanding of where the community wants to go and helping to move it in that direction. Staying on track and showing achievement, knowing it’s a journey and we need to  constantly adapt to the changes that come up, and not get bumped off course.