Can a mayor serve constituents and clients?
PR Associates has opened a new office in Terrace, B. C. and it’s being led by a familiar face to the community.
The natural resource specialist PR firm that counts Barrick Gold, the Mining Association of Canada and Alberta Chamber of Resources among its clients has hired Dave Pernarowski, Terrace’s mayor since 2008, to lead the new location in northern British Columbia, where he is the sole employee. The office opened last week.
Dave Pernarowski
Pernarowski said helming the new office to represent the agency’s natural resource sector clients won’t conflict with the interests of his constituents. “One of my roles as the mayor is to attract business and industry into the community and work for the diversification of our economy and do all the things that are important to communities, like create jobs and make sure that families are able to support and live in the community,” said Pernarowski. “I see my role with PR Associates as a real good fit.”
Pernarowski said he will recuse himself from council discussions if he finds his PR Associates clients are in conflict with the interests of the community.
Alyn Edwards, a partner in Vancouver-based PR firm Peak Communicators, said it may prove difficult to serve “two masters.”
“He’s got to work and a lot of mayors have outside jobs,” said Edwards. “But in this instance, a mayor who is effectively lobbying for an energy company in his own community while trying to serve the interests of his community seems to be on the surface a potential conflict.”
Terrace is in a region at the heart of several large-scale (and often controversial) projects in the mining, natural gas and oil industries.
As natural resource activities ramp up in the region over the next decade, PR Associates president and CEO Robert Simpson said it made sense to open a shop in Terrace – one of the largest cities in northwestern British Columbia. Simpson said having someone on the ground with Pernarowski’s skills (he has a background in sales and marketing, banking and broadcasting) will be an asset in helping resource-based companies communicate with the citizens and First Nations in the north.
