Status of the City's new Organization Chart: 'Clarifying terminology internally'

By Pepper Parr

June 22, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

Latest from City Hall on the new organization chart.

“As we work through these changes, we’re clarifying some terminology internally. Here’s how we’ll refer to these areas going forward:

“Divisions are external-facing service areas. We have 4 of these, including Public Works, Development and Growth Management, Legal and Legislative Services, and Community Services. Each Division is led by a Commissioner.

“Departments reflect corporate services, including Finance, HR, Digital Services, and Strategy, Performance and Risk. They are led by the CFO, CHRO, CIO, and CTO respectively.

“The Head of Corporate Affairs is an administrative role that oversees a number of departments, roles, and functions within the CAO’s office. These include Communications & Engagement, Government Relations, and Internal Audit.”

Some observations on the clarification.

Mayor Meed Ward keeping a close eye on new CAO Hassaan Basit at the podium.

The CAO, known more colloquially as the City Manger, and the only person City Council gets to hire or fire.  A bit of clarification on that – the Mayor is the only person who can fire the City Manager, because she has Strong Mayor Power.

The critical missing parts – who are the Commissioners?  No names have been released to date, despite several requests.  A concern that many have is the city does not have that many people on staff with the experience and qualifications that would be needed by whoever is going to be serving as a Commissioner.

Poaching these people from some other municipality?  That would raise more than eyebrows.

It appears getting this new org plan in place is  being done on the fly.  We know that it has been in the works for some time – for just how long is not yet clear.

This new organization has yet to be discussed at Council; they would (one hopes) have been advised.

Staff at City Hall have the summer to get used to the structure and figure out who works with who and how do they work when two departments are involved. While the decisions are in the hands of the CAO he does have a Mayor with Strong Mayor Powers to deal with.

The form of engagement that Burlington uses has been more than a concern for Gazette readers.  We note how Hassaan Basit has kept all those “functions within the CAO’s office”.  That could be good if it turns out to mean that he wants to bring about a change in the way City Hall staff engage with the public.

While he was President and CAO at Conservation Halton Basit looked for and found ways to engage the public.  It will take a few months to see if that practice is going to be part of what he brings to City Hall.

Getting information to the public on this new org setup has been wobbly – let’s put that to a part of the learning process for the Communications people.

Learning just who the Commissioners are going to be is the next step.