By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 25, 2011— The Mayor’s statement.
“Earlier today, Roman Martiuk announced that after four successful years as the city manager of Burlington, he will be leaving his post at the end of August 2011.
Ever the conductor no matter what the meeting, City Manager Roman Martiuk, whose resignation was announced by Mayor Goldring today, conducted a significant part of the Strategic Planning sessions – but he wasn’t always in tune with the Council he serves. Here he “conducts” with Georgina Black, the Strategic Plan facilitator.
“Roman has had a vast and varied career as a change agent in the municipal sector, both in Ontario and Saskatchewan. His expertise is in organizational change, cost containment initiatives and budget system improvements. He was hired by the City of Burlington in 2007 in his change-agent capacity, and successfully oversaw a number of changes, initiatives and system improvements.”
“After extensive discussion with me, City Council and Roman, the joint decision was made that a new city manager, early in the council term, would both build on Roman’s successes and be best to lead and implement council’s strategic plan over our four-year term.”
“On behalf of council and staff, I want to thank Roman for his hard work and dedication to the City of Burlington and its residents.”
“While we conduct a search for a new city manager, the duties will be assumed by rotating acting assignments by the city’s current general managers.”
So – what really happened?
Martiuk has been a strong administrator but he has had difficulty with this new Council who want to serve as a strong Board of Directors and while the city Manager has consistently said staff were in place to serve Council – there was the distinct impression that he didn’t like the shift that was taking place.
During the extensive Strategic Plans sessions – there were nine half day sessions – Martiuk and his staff were often running counter to the wishes of the majority of the Council members.
Where Martiuk has served Burlington exceptionally well is with his solid grasp of the city’s finances and the consequences of any changes that were made on the spending side. He was a very firm hand at the Council meetings he took part in – and tended to use the words “..if I might make a comment”, which usually saved one of his staff memners from making a mistake.
Roman Martiuk, in the white shirt, center, was the kind of city manager who did his home and usually knew more than anyone else in the room about the numbers that lay behind every decision made.
No word on where Martiuk plans to land next – the words “looking at his options” wasn’t used in the Mayor’s statement and the words “irreconcilable differences didn’t get used either. There is certainly more to this story than we are being told.
Is there a new City Manager amongst the current senior management team? Well, we have far too many “acting” positions on the go. Chris Glenn at Parks and Recreation is an “acting” Steve Zabos and Joan Ford are also “acting”. While there are good reasons for each of these people still serving as “actings” the reality is that a part of the management team is not fully confirmed – and that doesn’t result in a management team that is tight and focused.
Of the two General Managers – Scott Stewart is the strongest candidate and he is said to have an appetite for the City Manager position.
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