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This article was published 21/01/2015 (3052 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brian Bowman would offer no further clues today as to what prompted him to suspend acting CAO Deepak Joshi – but he’s still suspended.

Bowman’s executive policy committee followed the mayor’s suggestion and extended the suspension for up to an additional 30 days.

“The suspension of Deepak Joshi as chief administrative officer is extended for a period of not more than 30 days,” Bowman said following a 20-minute closed-door meeting EPC held to discuss Joshi’s fate.

There was no public debate among the EPC members.

Joshi was unexpectedly suspended by Bowman for three days with pay Jan. 16. At the time, Bowman said he had lost confidence in the veteran city employee and he said nothing more Wednesday.

EPC had few options on Joshi: they could either reinstate him, recommend to council he be dismissed, or continue the suspension.

According to the Winnipeg Charter, no further extensions of the suspension are permitted. Its next recommendation has to be either reinstatement or dismissal.

“I’ll give you the same message I gave you last week – I have lost confidence,” in Joshi, Bowman told reporters. “As soon as I’m able to provide you with additional information, I will.”

Only council has the power to dismiss the CAO, which can be done with a simple majority vote.

Joshi’s suspension was unexpected because it’s believed he wouldn’t be in the position much longer. Bowman had promised to have a new CAO in place by the end of February or the beginning of March.

Bowman said today the search for a new CAO has been ongoing and he expects to have a new individual for council’s consideration soon.

According to the Winnipeg Charter, the CAO is the only civic employee the mayor can independently discipline, outside of his own personal staff.

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EPC also endorsed Bowman’s decision to appoint Michael Jack to acting CAO. That recommendation goes to council next week for approval.

Jack had been city solicitor when Joshi promoted him to acting chief operating officer last year – the same job Joshi held before he was appointed in October 2013 to interim acting CAO, replacing Phil Sheegl who resigned days ahead of the release of independent review of the fire hall replacement program, which tied much of the missteps on that project to Sheegl.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca