Head of Corporate Affairs struggles to explain the city's Engagement strategy

By Pepper Parr

October 17th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

We would ask Ms Bortolotti to explain how she arrived at the 876,000 number.

On Tuesday, October 16^th, Leah Bortolotti told City Council that

“We did media releases supporting social media, digital ads, posters all across the city’s facilities, five media articles to date, the reach was 876,000 based on circulation publication. The sentiment at that time, not currently, was 100% neutral for media stories, so not any interest either way.”

The Gazette takes exception to the statements that were made.

Saying the reach for five articles that were published was 876,000 – we wonder what was she smoking? I know what our circulation is and I can guess what the other media that serve the Burlington market is – and it is nowhere near that number.

We would ask Ms Leah Bortolotti   to explain how she arrived at the 876,000 number.

Bortolotti adds that the sentiment of the articles that were published was 100% neutral adding the phrase “at the time”

The piece on engagement in Burlington Today, for which Lawson Hunter, the author, deserves credit, was scathing.

The Gazette has yet to see anything that was anywhere near acceptable in terms of citizen engagement on the part of the city.

“I’ve seen this before, working provincially, you think that people will be very interested in a specific item, and they’re not.”

It is just something none of the people in the city communications group understands.  To the best of our knowledge, there isn’t a single person in the communications group who has experience in journalism.  Most of them have some accreditation in public relations.

That they hold the jobs they have was not a mistake they made – the city Human Resources does the hiring and they seem to feel that communications people don’t have to know very much about what media is and how it works.

What we see communications staff doing is more fairly described as public relations – they are in place to protect the brand, to polish the apple they call the City of Burlington.  Remember – the best mid-sized city in Canada.  Do they know how that distinction was arrived at?  They might want to look into that.

A colleague mentioned to me recently that the communications advisers for almost every department in the provincial government are former journalists – people who understand what media is; what it can do and what it cannot do.

During her remarks to Council Ms Bortolotti said: “I’ve seen this before, working provincially, you think that people will be very interested in a specific item, and they’re not.”

We were not able to find very much on the various social media about Ms Bortolotti.

She sent us a note on an article we had published pointing out an error we had made.  She was right – we attributed words to the wrong person.  We fixed that problem and decided to see if we could begin a conversation with Leah Bartolini.  One Coucil member told us she didn’t know who the woman was when she stood at the lectern.

Leah Bortolotti was introduced as the Head of Corporate Affairs.  The city org chart has been confusing almost from the day it was first introduced.  The communications people seemed to have difficulty in keeping up with the details.  We aren’t sure who Bortolotti replaced.

She was presentable; she was direct and on several occasions said she didn’t have the answers – not something one hears from city hall staff. Good on her for being direct.

She had a tough first day before the public, however based on what we have learned we think (hope) the public can expect an improvement on the way engagement is practiced in Burlington. Don’t jump all over the woman.  Give her some time.

If experience counts, and it should – here is what Leah Bortolotti has done in the past.

She started with the City of Burlington “on August 14th after a competitive recruitment process. I am responsible for the leadership and direction of the City’s CAO office, and I also oversee the following departments: Communications and Community Engagement (in which Oanh Kasperski is the Director of Communications and Community Engagement and reports into my division), Government Relations, and the City’s Internal Auditor. 

“My most recent position was at Conservation Halton as the Director of Communications and Marketing. I also worked for the Ontario Government and held various positions in different ministries including the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks as the Chief of Staff and Director of Issues Management and Legislative Affairs, and the Office of the President of the Treasury Board Secretariat as the Manager of Issues Management and Legislative Affairs. 

“My undergraduate degree is an Honours of Communications with a Minor in English Language and Literature and I hold a Master’s degree in Communication Studies with a specialization in Public Relations. I also hold several certifications in digital and social marketing.

“Some background about me that would tie some of your remaining questions together would be that I’m originally from Ottawa and before the Sens were established, we were all Habs fans, given the proximity to Quebec. I’ve now been in GTA/GTHA for over 8 years and during my time here, have found that I unknowingly, and unfortunately (given their track record), became a Leafs fan. 

We can only commiserate with Ms Bortolotti on her hockey preference

For the immediate future we see promise and wait to see how she changes the way engagement is done going forward in Burlington.