Swift Current’s Chief Administrative Officer Tim Marcus has announced he will retire after more than 23 years of service to the city. 

“It will be a big change for sure”, Marcus told reporters following Monday’s City Council meeting. “I’ve been coming here for a little over 23 years, so it’ll be a little different to be home for a change, but in the same vein, it feels good to move on to a new chapter in your life and have lots of things to do." 

Marcus first started with the city in the fall of 1999 as its Director of Finance and served as Deputy CAO and CFO from 2011 until 2015 when he became the city’s CAO. 

He mentioned one of the big highlights from his time was the lengthy process to expand the franchise area for the city’s Light & Power utility, which was completed in 2021. 

“The one project we’ve been working on since around 2005 was the franchise area for our Light & Power, which all of the discussions originated back with the lawsuit that we started way back when,” he said. “That’s a project that means a lot to our utility on a go-forward basis. I’d have to say since it lasted such a long time, it had been the one that stands out the most and I believe it really sets the city up in the future.” 

Marcus also talked about the challenges that he and his staff faced as they looked to maintain essential municipal services in the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

“The challenges were, of course, to make sure we had staff that were healthy and were able to show up to work, and we had plans in place to ensure that our utilities continued at the start,” he said. “Some of our biggest fears were if everybody, say, at the water treatment plant was sick and we couldn’t treat water, then we’d be impacting the rest of the city, so we scrambled for a while to make plans. It was so many different things that were thrown at you over the course of the pandemic, and it changed a lot of people in terms of adapting to everything that’s different. 

“It just changed everything, and it was a real challenge to adapt, but our staff was terrific. They didn’t want to stay home, they came to work every day, and everybody got sick at one point or another, but we managed to make our way through it,” Marcus added. “For the people that worked full time through it, I’d say they’re more resilient than they were before it started. They truly were heroic in a lot of their efforts to make sure that city services continued to be delivered every day. While everybody else was having their own issues with the pandemic, you know when you get up in the morning, you expect the water to be there, and you expect it to be safe, and you expect the roads to be plowed, and our staff was tremendous during that time.” 

Over the last two decades, Marcus had seen a number of changes with how the city operated. For example, his offices were originally at the site of the former City Hall, where Innovation Centre is now located, then moving to Swift Current Mall while work was taking place to convert the former Southwest Credit Union headquarters to the current City Hall. He’s also been with the city’s administration through eight city council terms and served as CAO for three different mayors. 

“Every council has been a little different, but for the most part the councils have been good,” he said. “They’ve all had different priorities, but at the end of the day, nobody runs for council to try and tear things down or take things apart. They’re all doing it because they want to make the city a better place to be, and they have the city’s best interest in mind and so do the staff. It’s always easy to line up with one another and move the city forward as best we can.” 

“Tim is an exemplary professional,” Mayor Al Bridal said in a press release issued on Monday night. “He has provided knowledgeable advice to Council members and strong, dependable leadership at the staff level. We thank him for his contributions and wish him all the best in his retirement." 

Marcus’ retirement will take effect on January 31, 2023.