Peterborough council approves management shuffle despite missing numbers in report

A report presented to Peterborough city council is recommending a shakeup of upper management at city hall to deal with upcoming retirements and staffing shortages.

Among the changes that are being recommended is the appointment of Sandra Clancy as the city’s chief administrative officer (CAO). She’s currently the city’s treasurer and director of corporate services.

The report was written by Allan Seabrooke, the city’s CAO for the past two years. He’ll be stepping away from that role and moving to community services.

Seabrooke wasn’t on hand for Monday night’s meeting, so deputy CAO Wayne Jackson laid out the details of the report and fielded the questions on what the plan would mean and how it would affect the 2019 budget.

“We’ve found that our salary structure just wasn’t strong enough to bring in the people we needed,” said Jackson. “In fact, it’s resulted in a couple of directors actually carrying manager portfolios simply because we couldn’t get the right people.”

With the new management structure and an increase in compensation for its top employees, the report suggests city hall will be able to attract the best and brightest talent.

Still, some councillors were concerned about the report and questioned what the staffing changes would mean for the taxpayers, as there were no details about the financial impact with regards to the management shuffle.

“When you’re dealing with something like this here and the taxpayers’ money, I’d sooner have seen a breakdown of all the costs,” said Coun. Keith Riel. “But certainly there will be costs of hires and people will be elevated to different positions but I don’t see any costs here.”

“I agree,” said Jackson. “It might have been nice if we had put dollars in the report.”

According to Seabrooke’s report, there are no financial implications for the 2018 budget with two directors retiring including Jackson who will step down in December — but according to the report, all commissioners and the new CAO will receive a pay hike.

The move will see the city do away with its five director positions in favour of three commissioner roles, all reporting the CAO.

Seabrooke will take over as commissioner of community services, replacing Ken Doherty who will retire in June, while Jackson will remain as deputy CAO and take over as commissioner of infrastructure and planning.

It’s expected the city will have to hire a new solicitor as Patricia Lester will move into a new role as commissioner of corporate and legislative services.

Even with the missing numbers, everyone on council supported the motion, except for Coun. Diane Therrien, who needed more information, and Mayor Daryl Bennett, who was not at the meeting.

Council will look to ratify the decision at the next council meeting and if approved the staffing changes would take effect in May.