I was watching Global's noon newscast today, which reported that Vancouver's fire chief, Ray Holdgate, will retire.

This is a pretty significant story for Vancouver residents, given that Holdgate oversees an $82.6-million budget for Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services.

But the story on Global included no attribution and no quotes.

So I went looking on the Web sites of the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services for confirmation. There was nothing there.

So I googled, and stumbled across this e-mail from city manager Penny Ballem to council and senior staff, which was leaked to blogger and city hall watcher Frances Bula. Ballem wrote the e-mail last Tuesday (February 24), but nobody bothered to announce anything to the public.

Deputy fire chief John McKearney will be the acting chief until a search is completed to fill Holdgate's position.

Since Vision Vancouver took control of the city, there appears to have been an increase in secrecy. Council recently refused to hear from delegations on rising costs concerning social housing at  the Olympic Village. I can't remember anything like this happening before.  

Vision also hired a new city manager without so much as passing around her resume to opposition councillors.

It's gotten to the point that when the fire chief resigns, the only way the media finds out about it is when some councillor or senior staffer decides to leak an e-mail.

This is the way provincial governments normally  operate, not the City of Vancouver. The New Democrats who are in charge and their former deputy health minister who was hired to run the city should know better.

How does it happen? It comes from having an attitude that informing the public about what you're doing isn't really that important.

The next time someone of Holdgate's stature announces his retirement, the City of Vancouver should put out a news release.