Trials and tribulations of a City Manager who decides not to seek an extension of contract after getting a $60k raise - figure that one out?

By Pepper Parr

December 15^th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

OPINION

There is something just a little odd about how City Manager has been treated by City Council and how he has reacted to decision Council made about the job he does.

Council hires just one person: the City Manager. The City Manager delegates the authority he has to other senior staff members.

Earlier this year Council went into a CLOSED session and did a review of his performance.  The only the public heard was a comment Tim Commisso made about feeling very humble with the way the review went adding that the job of City Manager for Burlington is one of the most satisfying in his career is as a municipal civil servant.

Sometime after the review the public was told that Commisso was being given a salary increase – something in the order of an additional $60,000+ a year.

Tim Commisso accepted an invitation for a cup of coffee with newly elected Mayor Meed Ward and ended up accepting an appointment as interim City Manager that was confirmed by a basically newbie City Council. Councillor Sharman had worked with Commisso in the past.

There was no detail on how this came about.  Did the Mayor invite Tim in for coffee and tell him that he was going to get an additional 60 big ones each year?  Did they send him an email?  Did the Director of Human Resources advise him?

What was very surprising was the announce weeks later from Tim Commisso that he was not going to seek an extension of his contract?

Huh!  He gets a substantial raise and weeks later says he won’t be sticking around for much longer.

What brought about the change of heart?

Both Mayor Meed Ward and City Manager Tim Commisso went native as they danced through the streets of Itabashi in Japan. Somewhere along the way the relationship between the Mayor and the City Manager changed.

Anyone with any senior executive responsibility would look askance at a situation like this.

So far – no one is talking.  In time the real story leaks out and we will pass it along when we get it.

What we can say at this point in time is that this is not a healthy Human Resources situation

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.