By Pepper Parr
May 28th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
Parting ways with a senior member of the team is never easy.
Today the city parted ways with Fire Chief David Lazenby.
Fire Chief David Lazenby. during a presentation to a fireman who saved a senior having difficulty in a swimming pool.
The standard practice when a senior member of the team that runs the city when they decide to move on is to thank them for their service and to wish them well.
Our colleagues at the Bay Observer caught this try before we did – the picked it up from a Twitter feed and published a short piece.
We popped a note along to Kwab Ako-Adjei, Director, Corporate Communications & Government Relations who responded with:
The City of Burlington does not comment on specifics of personnel matters. We would like to thank Dave Lazenby for his service as Fire Chief over the last 3 years.
So Dave got turfed.
He was a good Fire Chief. He worked well with most people and was very accommodating with the Finance people during budget discussions.
Lazenby was one of the few people on the Emergency Coordinating Group (ECG) with command and control experience; something critical in an emergency environment.
Of interest is the part of the city council meeting that went into closed session on a “Human Resources” matter earlier this week. I think one can connect the dots.
While the City Manager makes the staffing decisions – for the Fire Chief position he would be obliged to take it to Council
Was the Human Resources matter a behaviour issue or was there a significant difference of opinion between the City Manager and the Fire Chief.
We will never know – we might pick up some scuttlebutt in the days ahead – the fire people are a tight group.
In the meantime – the city needs a new Fire Chief and Tim Commisso needs some new weight on his Emergency Coordinating Group
I am quite sure this decision (as are most staffing decisions) was not taken lightly nor was it the sole decision of the City Manager.
Craig don’t forget the firing of the previous City Manager and the Planning Director. These forced removals would have to receive the approval of our Mayor. Not Donald Trump.
Perhaps Tim Commisso is not the Super Star and saviour of our city we were led to believe. The optics/timing on this smell pretty bad almost a TRUMP type of firing. Moves like this could impact certain peoples asperation for higher office.