Vancouver paid $572,000 to buy out former city manager

Documents have revealed the City of Vancouver spent more than half a million dollars to buy out its former city manager, Judy Rogers.

Details of the severance agreement were obtained by CBC News through a Freedom of Information request.

Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has always maintained his top priority when he came into office was to end homelessness in the city.

But according to the minutes from a closed-door meeting on Dec. 12, one of the new council's first actions four days after Robertson's inauguration was to pay the 20-year veteran of city hall a total package worth $572,000 to leave.

In December, Robertson would only say Rogers was asked to leave because it fit into his new council's "agenda for change."

On Thursday, Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs explained further.

"We wanted to be sure that someone could come in without a legacy and history of having made so many decisions, and being involved in so many decisions, and ask the tough questions of what needed to be done to reshape the city for the future," said Meggs.

"It was an agreed resignation. The significance of this is that under the (city) charter, the mayor has the right to pick the city manager. She sat down with the mayor, they had a discussion, and she agreed that a change was the right way to go," said Meggs

Rogers' base salary in 2008 was $309,000. Her replacement, Penny Ballem, will be paid $303,000 this year.