Today, the City of Vancouver filled another senior management position by appointing Paul Mochrie as deputy city manager.

He's been the general manager of human resources, digital strategy, and information technology since 2011. He has also been the acting deputy city manager since his predecessor, Sadhu Johnston, became acting city manager last year.

In early March, Johnston was appointed as city manager on a permanent basis.

Like Johnston and former city manager Penny Ballem, Mochrie did not rise up through the ranks of the city's bureaucracy.

He was a senior consultant to the Health Employers Association of B.C. for four years before serving as a director of Vancouver Coastal Health Authority from 2001 to 2003. At that point, he moved over to Fraser Health Authority as the director of strategic initiatives before joining the Ministry of Health.

There, he played a key role in negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, according to his Linkedin profile. Mochrie was hired by the city in 2011.

With expertise in human resources and digital strategies, Mochrie fills in some of the gaps in Johnston's resumé, which is strong on the environmental side but perhaps not as fleshed out in the areas where Mochrie has worked, namely negotiating with outside parties. Mochrie's history with provincial government officials also stands in stark contrast to Johnston's work record. That could be one reason why Mochrie got the job because the city will have to work with the province in a wide range of areas, including rapid transit.

But for some residents of Vancouver, there may be a nagging concern that neither the new city manager nor the deputy has a great deal of experience actually delivering civic services at lower levels within the organization.

How much time, for instance, has either of them spent inside community centres understanding the role that they play in everything from crime prevention to improved health outcomes?

Is it in their DNA to recognize that the Vancouver Public Library plays a critical role in levelling the playing field for low-income citizens—and will they fight for its well-being over sexier initiatives favoured by elected officials?

And will Mochrie and Johnston have sufficient respect for the planning process? Many citizens and former planners are hoping that the next director of planning will be permitted to freely exercise his or her professional judgment without facing interference from above.

Here's another thing to consider. Do Mochrie and Johnston really get that in the B.C. political context, a mayor is first among equals? Johnston previously worked in Chicago where the mayor operated under what's known as executive-style governance.

American mayors are de facto chief executives, but that's not the case in B.C., where the top elected official is just one of the governors of the organization.

Sometimes, it seemed that the last Vancouver city manager, Ballem, acted as if there was executive-style governance at Vancouver City Hall. She previously worked for the provincial government, where the premier is more prone to run the show.

I believe this was a contributing factor behind the uproar against Vision Vancouver in various neighbourhoods, which Johnston is trying to address.

Meanwhile, TransLink has also hired an American CEO, Kevin Desmond, whose last job was overseeing King County Metro Transit in Greater Seattle. Like Johnston, Desmond is also used to operating in a milieu where mayors have strong executive powers.

It's too early to draw any definitive conclusions about all three of these senior civil servants. None of them has been in their current roles on a permanent basis for more than two months.

Nevertheless, it's worth keeping an eye on all three for any sign that they're ever under the mistaken impression that mayors in the Lower Mainland are big powerful bosses along the lines of Chicago's Rahm Emanual, New York's Bill de Blasio, or Seattle's Ed Murray. Our system was set up to ensure that B.C. mayors don't have anywhere near the same level of authority.