The man Walks his Talk - Hassaan Basit will become City Manager next Monday

By Pepper Parr

April 18^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

Hassaan Basit is busy tidying up last minute tasks, the Conservation Halton as staff prepare to say goodbye to the best leader they have had in decades.  His replacement has some pretty big shoes to fill.

Haassan Basit becomes the City Manager Monday of next week.

Meanwhile staff at City Hall get ready to welcome Hassaan as their new city manager on Monday. The public doesn’t know much about Hassaan – one reader labelled him the Mayor’s sock puppet.  They couldn’t be further from the truth.

City Manager Tim Commisso.

One wonders if Tim Cammisso will leave a letter in the bottom drawer of his desk setting out for Hassaan what he has in front of him

Commisso told City Council at his last meeting earlier this week that he had been working with Haassan for a number of months during which he had introduced him to some of the senior staff.

People need to understand that Hassaan Basit and Marianne Meed Ward have worked together for a number of years.

She was a city representative on the Conservation Authority as far back as 2014.  They each have a good measure of each other.  He knows what he is getting into and she knows what she has.

Councillor Sharman put it very well when he described Hassaan as both strategic and good with numbers.

The Gazette has worked with five different City Managers – each had their own style.  Some understood media and worked with us; others didn’t understand media and didn’t like media.  You can imagine how those relationships worked out.

Hassaan Basit did not grow and mature as an executive in a municipal environment.

My experience during the 12 years the I have covered  Burlington and the years prior to that when I covered municipal governments in Bradford and Barrie Ontario was that they were not interested in giving clear, direct answers to the public.

The culture within municipal governments is set by people who spend their careers at different municipalities.  They work and interact with each other on a regular basis.  Using Tim Commisso as an example: he started with Burlington and stayed in different jobs as he was promoted from department to department for 20 years; left Burlington to become the City Manager in Thunder Bay, spent a few years in the private sector and returned to Burlington as City Manager.

In those years he formed a very solid network of senior level people within the municipal sector.  Very few move from the municipal sector to the province where they might work with Municipal Affairs and Housing.  Municipal people rarely move to the private sector.

Some may take exception with the “not interested in giving clear, direct answers” statement. Let me give you two examples – there are many.  Every city has reserve funds – some of them are mandated.  We once published the complete list.  There was a point when Commisso decided that rather than make the complete list available he would group the reserve funds and give totals for the group – meaning the public didn’t have the full picture.

The floating docks at LaSalle Park Marina

Many were stunned when the city sucked $4 million out of the Hydro Reserve Account to fund the LaSalle Marina upgrade to the floating docks.

Earlier this week a delegator had some questions about the tax bills that were going to be sent out.  Councillor Sharman admitted that he didn’t understand much of the language on a tax bill.  Sharman asked if perhaps a note could be included with the tax bill.  There was no interest from any other Councillor in letting the public know what the numbers on their tax bill meant.

Hassaan hasn’t been infected with that municipal virus.  He walks his talk.

A number of years ago he came to the conclusion that if he was going to manage to make any changes at Conservation Halton he needed more revenue.  The fees for using the conservation properties were decent and were seen as a place where revenue could be improved.

In the municipal world staff figure out what they need and they raise prices.

He walks his talk, he is direct and doesn’t fudge his answers – at least not when I knew him.

Hassaan took a different approach.  He met with different groups and asked what they liked and what they didn’t like and how they would feel if fees were put in place for things that were free.

He listed and because there was a strong trust relationship he had people telling him they would accept a fee just as long as it was reasonable.

Bringing that approach to a municipality is a challenge, one that Hassaan Basit was fully aware of when he applied for the job.

It would be unreasonable to expect much in the way of visible changes in the first six months.  Hassaan will listen, use those opportunities when staff ask for some direction to quietly make suggestions. He is politically astute – has no problem reaching out.

By October 2026 we will have a clear sense as to what kind of a City Manager he has turned out to be and the direction he will take the city.

Everyone will have advice for him and I am no different.

My advice to Hassaan Bait is to be in touch with Lori Jivan at the Finance department and ask her how he he accesses the Loaves and Fishes account.