Nanaimo city manager faces charges over alleged threatening behaviour

The City of Nanaimo’s most senior public servant is facing criminal charges.

Chief Administrative Officer Tracy Samra has been charged with one count of “fear of injury/damage by another person,” relating to an incident on Jan. 31.

That’s the week RCMP made an arrest and initiated an investigation due to what the City of Nanaimo described as an “incident at City Hall.”

The details of that incident remain unclear.

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On Feb. 2, a special prosecutor was appointed to take charge of the case.

Global News has requested comment from Nanaimo Mayor Bill McKay and Crown prosecutors on the charges.

Should Samra be convicted, she is unlikely to face jail time. The section of the criminal code under which she is charged suggests a peace bond as the preferred outcome, though a judge may hand her up to 12 months in jail if she refuses.

The charges are the latest in a string of acrimonious incidents that have roiled the island city’s local government.

Samra had previously accused former councillor Wendy Pratt of assault relating to an incident at a February 2017 council meeting.

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A special prosecutor appointed by the RCMP to probe problems on council declined to recommend charges on that allegation. However, Pratt resigned her post last April.

In 2016, a letter allegedly written by Mayor McKay containing sensitive personal information about councillors was leaked.

That same year, councillors wrote a letter alleging that the mayor had engaged in secret business dealings and called for an RCMP investigation.

And that same spring, a group of councillors also published a letter of non-confidence in the mayor, alleging he had bullied Samra, who was then interim-chief administrative officer.