New hire mum on personal connection to mayor
Twitter photo: Chris Vanderkruys celebrates on election night with family and supporters, including Tim Hendry (bottom right).
Clearview Township has hired Tim Hendry as its new communications and marketing coordinator but whether or not staff knew he was in a relationship with the mayor’s daughter remains to be seen.
According to Facebook posts, Hendry is in a relationship with Clearview Mayor Chris Vanderkruys’ daughter Kristin.
When contacted by The Echo, Hendry would not confirm or deny a relationship with the mayor’s daughter.
“I am not going to be commenting on anything yet until I officially start,” said Hendry adding he prefers to speak with the human resources manager when he starts work on Monday. “As of now, I am not confirming anything. I am not commenting on anything.”
Clearview’s HR manager Pavlina Thompson would not comment on whether or not the relationship was known to staff.
“I am not in any position to discuss somebody’s personal affairs,” said Thompson. “That is personal information and whether I did or did not know, I am not confirming anything.”
She said Hendry will report to the CAO who made the decision on who to hire, along with Thompson. She said the selection is based on a point system.
“If you are reporting to someone, you cannot be related to that person. Tim Hendry is not related to Steve Sage in any shape or form. He didn’t know Tim until this time,” said Thompson.
She said the communications and marketing coordinator does not report to the mayor. The CAO is the only person who reports to the mayor.
Sage is away on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
Other council members said they were not aware of the mayor’s relationship to Hendry and would not comment.
The Echo attempted to contact the mayor by phone and e-mail but did not hear back before press time.
Hendry is a social media marketer and owner of TRH Marketing, based in Wasaga Beach, and was at Laurentian University until last year. His current client list on Linkedin includes the Barrie Public Library, where the mayor works.
Hendry also appears in social media photos of the mayor.
The decision to hire a communications and marketing coordinator was made in March during budget deliberations. The staff position was a recommendation of the 2014 branding process, passed before Vanderkruys was mayor. He did vote in favour of creating the position though when it was almost chopped from this year’s budget to save the expense of the annual salary of $56,000 plus benefits.
