City clerk who served under 5 Winnipeg mayors set to retire

The City of Winnipeg's longest-serving department director plans to retire in March.

Richard Kachur has run the City Clerk's office since 2001 and started working for the department as a deputy clerk in 1992. He wound up serving under five mayors: Bill Norrie, Susan Thompson, Glen Murray, Sam Katz and Brian Bowman.

Kachurhas informed council he intends to retire on March 2.

"I'm excited. I've had almost 35 years in public service. I've worked full time for over 40 years. I'm also the longest-serving city clerk since Unicity[in 1972] and the second-longest in the city's history," Kachur said Thursday in a telephone interview.

Kachur said his 26 years of service within the City Clerk's office is second only to that of Charles James Brown, who served the city from 1883 to 1926.

The City Clerk's office manages the flow of reports through council committees and ensures legislative processes are followed properly. The city clerk is one of four statutory officers at the city officials who report directly to city council rather than to a member of the public service.

The other three statutory officers are chief administrative officer Doug McNeil, chief financial officer Mike Ruta and city auditor Bryan Mansky.

Kachur'sretirement will require council to fill the post during an election year, which is significant considering deputy city clerk Marc Lemoine serves as the city's senior election official.

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Kachursaid he is proud of modernizing his office.

"When I came here, they were taking shorthand. There were no computers. It's incredible,what we've accomplished over the years."

In a letter to council dated Dec. 22, Kachuralso noted recent efforts to improve transparency at the city, create a new records-management centre, plan for this year's election and bring marriage ceremonies back to city hall.