By Pepper Parr
June 24th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
No word yet on who the four Commissioners set out in the most recent organization chart the city released last week
We however now know that the City Clerk will report to the Corporate Solicitor; that being Blake Hurley
The reporting structure for the Clerk position is not prescribed in the Municipal Act.
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I’m guessing one of the things that wasn’t evaluated in designing this new organizational structure was department complement and effective controls.
Interesting how Human Resources gets their own head, but they only have 28 staff. Legal only has 17. Finance has 40. Meanwhile, the poor Commissioner of Community Services has to look after Transit (190 employees), plus Recreation (170 employees) and Fire (218 employees). That’s 578, and we haven’t added in all the folks from Customer Experience yet. Or, to put it in perspective, in a City with 1,386 employees, one Commissioner ends up overseeing nearly half of the City’s workforce.
How does that provide effective policy direction and oversight?
The City Clerk may report to the city solicitor however the City Clerk still operates with much autonomy. The decision of the Clerk does not and SHOULD not be compromised by a group Head. Let’s just say the overall department budget oversight falls on the solicitor and they handle the Christmas party location.
Hmmmmmmm Clerk reporting to City Solicitor may well be CAO publicly washing his hands of any role he has in finishing what Tim Commisso and Hurley started to deal with in terms of past Clerk, City Solicitor, Mayor and Council approving and acting on a bylaw outside of the Municipal Act requirements for the bylaw to be on the City books… A bylaw that continues to require downtown businesses to pay a levy on an annual basis that is over and above property taxes. Adding up to more than $10 million.
It took us over two years to get Commisso and Hurley to meet with us January 24th to try and prevent more Ombudsman fees for what was the City Manager and Legal’s responsibility to sort.
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