Who's Going to Want to Come Here Now?
Since November 2003, when Mayor Eddie Francis was first elected, more than 30 city senior managers have either been terminated, taken other jobs or disappeared into the sunset. Experts say the revolving door at city hall hurts the city, costing it money and its reputation.
Revolving door costs Windsor money, reputationNewest CAO is the fourth in six yearsBy Dave Battagello, The Windsor StarOctober 3, 2009
WINDSOR, Ont. -- When Helga Reidel took over as the top executive at city hall this week, she became Windsor’s fourth chief administrative officer in six years, a familiar tale among the city’s most senior staff.
Since November 2003, when Mayor Eddie Francis was first elected, more than 30 senior managers have either been terminated, taken other jobs or disappeared into the sunset.
Nearly every municipal department, from public works to economic development, has been affected by a steady stream of departures among its highest-ranking bureaucrats.
The result has been projects started, but not finished, and a revolving door of bureaucrats, costing the city money and its reputation, say insiders and experts.
Except for last month’s controversial payment to John Skorobohacz, who was given $275,000 when he left, in nearly all cases the severance for those senior workers has not been made public.
Among others believed to have received settlements were former development commission heads Paul Bondy, Roman Dzus and Matthew Fischer, tourism’s Elizabeth Hamel, social service boss Susan Ellis and Enwin Utilities CEO Roy Fritz.
Former CAO Dennis Perlin, building commissioner Ed Link, public works director Gord Harding and parks commissioner Lloyd Burridge were also given severances, but asked to work them off in another capacity.
If Skorobohacz’s severance is any indication, taxpayers have been on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars as managers headed for the door.
Retired university business Prof. Alfie Morgan, who took a turn as acting CAO in 2004, said it is unusual to have such high turnover at the top.
The reason for the changes are tied with the political agenda of Windsor’s mayor and councillors, he said.
“Every time they get someone willing to go with the agenda and it’s fine up to a point,” Morgan said.
“Then time comes where that individual expresses a slight opinion that’s not well-received, conflict sets in and a mechanism for replacing the individual is set into motion.”
There must be three distinct centres of power — administration, the mayor and city council — so a municipality gets the benefits of three perspectives instead of one, he said.
“In Windsor, I don’t see the separation of power,” said Morgan, dating it back to former mayor Mike Hurst and continuing with Francis. “The people with power win and ones with less power lose.
“If you are not with me, you are against me — they have to get out of that mindset. There can be tremendous psychological and financial cost to this. All this restructuring, there is a lot of money in that. There is also cost of mistakes unless it’s done with tremendous care.”
The city’s operations division, which among other things is responsible for maintenance of the city’s vehicle fleet, was overseen from 2003 to 2007 by a revolving door of three CAOs, five public works general managers, two executive directors and three managers.
Former city auditor Mike Dunbar, who left the city at the end of 2007 complaining of political interference, conducted an audit between 2003 and 2006 that pointed to financial troubles in the fleet operation, including car repairs valued far above what the cars cost when they were purchased and questions over use of the city’s fuel pumps.
The audit identified a risk of fraud, as well as poor management, waste, abuse and incomplete and inaccurate records.
His report concluded that the upheaval within city management since 2003 was a root cause of the fleet department’s troubles.
Another audit of the 400 City Hall Square building, so far only partially released, also pointed to troubles caused by management turnover during construction of the $32-million downtown government services building. The city started construction in 2003 on the 400 building with a cost of $23.3 million, but following several council-approved additions the project ended up with a $32-million price tag — $686,000 above budget.
The report said the project came at a time of “significant organizational instability” at city hall. There was frequent turnover of staff assigned to the project and “no clear assignment of accountability” for it. The audit found inadequate staffing and planning, budget and contracting problems led to an atmosphere of “reactive” management that required council to approve additional funding for the building.
Currently, the city’s management ranks are in a state of flux. Gordon Orr is the lame duck head of tourism waiting to be shuffled to another city managerial job. Nobody will replace Helga Reidel, the new CAO, as general manger of corporate services. There is no public works director following last month’s termination of Dev Tyagi.
The city’s fire department is operating with one deputy chief, as opposed to two. Max Zalev, appointed in 2005, was “acting” head for years before the tag was recently dropped by Enwin Utilities — an entity where several top managers were pushed out. Zalev is also acting general manager for the Windsor Utilities Commission.
The development commission — which is tasked with the job of generating new business in Windsor and Essex County — lost its CEOs at a time when it could least afford to. Former CEO Matthew Fischer — who was hired after an extensive, nationwide search — was fired in 2008, after just over one year into the job.
Both Paul Bondy and Roman Dzus were shown the door before Fischer arrived. After Fischer was fired, board chairman Remo Mancini took over, but he was eventually forced out as well.
Today, the commission is headed by vice-president Pat Persichilli and a board that includes Francis and Essex County Warden Nelson Santos in prominent decision-making capacities. When the two elected representatives set foot into the board room, nearly a dozen directors handed in their resignations and a new board had to be appointed.
In the middle of the $110-million expansion of the Lou Romano sewage plant, pollution control executive director Kit Woods left for Leamington after 32 years with the city. He declined comment on his departure.
He joined John Tofflemire, the community services director in Leamington, who left Windsor in 2005 after more than 20 years at the city.
Dunbar resigned nearly two years ago and has not been replaced, leaving three junior staff members to run the audit department. City council 18 months ago approved the hiring of an auditor general to oversee the department and bring tougher checks and balances to Windsor.
The watchdog position remains unfilled.
“It really is unfortunate that the young, best and brightest have left the city and many of them found work at municipalities in the county,” Dunbar said. “Windsor suffered a huge loss and the county a huge gain.
“When you lose people like John Tofflemire and Kit Woods to Leamington or Dan Piescic to Lakeshore (former city assistant building commissioner who left in 2007), that’s very unfortunate for the city. They did not leave for more money — just better working conditions — and they found them. That’s Windsor’s loss.”
Meanwhile, the mayor holds influential roles at the airport, Windsor-Detroit Tunnel Commission, Windsor Utilities Commission, Enwin and the police services board. He controls the strings on any discussions around a new border feeder highway or any issue related to the border.
Francis also held an influential role in deciding the location and construction of the WFCU Arena which went from $48 million to $71.6 million once all the services and extras were thrown in. He has also played a major role in steering the city’s transit operations, securing the Red Bull Air Race and is now pushing to build a downtown canal.
Skorobohacz cited several reasons for his decision to part ways with the city, including growing disagreements with council and weariness from the heavy-handed control of Francis.
But Francis said that as mayor, he has a mandate to be closely involved in the city’s operations.
“I’m the CEO of the corporation,” he said. “I was elected by Windsor to watch over their tax dollars. In order to do that job I need to be involved. Being the mayor is not just about ribbon-cutting. I’d rather be engaged as opposed to delegating authority to someone else, and I’m prepared to stand on my record.”
He expressed concern about the costs of high staff turnover but also said more changes are coming.
Council is about to embark on another massive reorganization, the mayor said. The city’s elected leaders gained enough information from the first phase of a massive service delivery review by an outside consultant that council is poised to execute the process.
“We need to achieve a corporate structure that is sustainable to support services that are affordable,” Francis said. “The result will be a savings to the taxpayer. This time around there are clear objectives and we know where we’re going.”
Council will first identify services it will continue to deliver, assess what should be outsourced, then restructure city hall, he said.
When asked about the impact on staff caused by the instability at the top and whether employee morale is a concern, Francis responded:
“We are concerned dealing with people’s livelihood, but that’s why during the service delivery review we engaged everyone and let them know where we are going.
“If we don’t do this now, the cost, instability and impact on employees of a do-nothing approach will have a greater impact.”
* * *
Dennis Perlin, the city’s former CAO who was hired in 2003 after an exhaustive search by council, departed after serving just over a year. Now the CAO of Halton Hills, a bedroom community west of Toronto, Perlin says Windsor’s mayor and council are part of a growing trend of large municipalities pushing aside their managers and wanting to run the city themselves.
“You have councillors elected and a mayor taking on the role of chief executive officer. They feel they should provide management direction. Mayor (Mike) Hurst and Mayor Francis believed that way.”
Perlin looks at his time in Windsor with some frustration because he was unable to complete his vision for change.
His controversial restructuring of personnel, which involved the shuffling of nearly every city department, was merely a first step, with governance policy and service delivery changes in Windsor next on his to-do list. But “(Francis) didn’t agree with the model put forward when he became mayor,” Perlin said.
“What we had formed had a whole lot of staff and teams excited about how we were to change delivering services,” Perlin said. “We never got to that part. Windsor would have been better off to continue with that process.”
When a municipality is burdened with frequent administrative change at the top, it is often a sign of a dysfunctional relationship between council and staff, said Andrew Sancton, political science professor at the University of Western Ontario who specializes in local government issues and public administration.
“If top managers are constantly leaving, it leads you to think there is some difficulty on the council side,” he said. “Often it’s an inability of the mayor or council to respect the boundaries needed on what politicians are supposed to do and what administrators do.”
It’s positive to bring in new blood every once in a while, but the “other extreme is problematic where a place gets a reputation of conflict and trouble,” he said.
“Then you can’t get good people and that perpetuates the cycle.”
Five years ago, the city’s 400 non-union managers and supervisors grew so disenchanted over job security, quality of life and work demands that they voted to unionize, making Windsor the second major municipality in Ontario after Ottawa to have an organized management group.
“If things are not happening as they see fit, (Francis and council) have made it clear they will change the players,” said John Miceli, the city’s manager of facility operations and president of the management association that recently formed a union for managers at city hall.
Managers who left “didn’t fit the mould of what council wanted to move this organization towards. Rightly or wrongly, all of council made the decisions,” Miceli said.
“There is a lack of respect for the non-union workforce,” he said. “We carried the organization through the whole strike. We have constantly delivered what we are paid to do and then some.
“When you don’t feel your contributions are valued, you get what you get. In this case what the city is going to get is a union with its management staff.”
The list of former managers starts in the city’s top office, the office of the chief administrative officer, but also includes agencies such as the development commission, Enwin Utilities and the Windsor Public Library.
Constant turnover at the top in Ontario’s major cities can bring new perspective, but the negatives and added costs of frequent change far outweigh the benefits, said Dan Henstra, assistant political science professor at the University of Windsor who specializes in public administration.
Long-serving administrators have the history, intelligence and “pulse of the organization” about needs and demands within the city and can more easily navigate getting project approvals.
“That gets lost when new people take over,” Henstra said. “Many times council comes in and shake things up, but economically it’s not practical and reasonable.”
The business community also has expectations of what’s needed from the city to make economic development happen. When the faces keep changing they don’t know who to call or where to turn, paralyzing opportunities, he said.
“My main concerns of the high rate of turnover at senior levels is day-to-day operations of an organization,” Henstra said. “Especially when the economy is so bad, quick decisions are needed, but instead get bogged down. It could be an indicator of an ill-functioning machine.
“This does not indicate a well-functioning organizational system between politicians and administration. What else could motivate a systemwide purge?”
Coun. Fulvio Valentinis believes changes at the top at times have been energizing and other times demoralizing or have created uncertainty when they were not done properly.
He said that was especially true during the Perlin period, when insiders dubbed the CAO “Perlin the Terminator.”
“The changes then were more drastic than they should have been,” Valentinis said. “Council has to share in that responsibility.”
He said he feels the high rate of turnover has not reflected badly on the corporation’s reputation or is much different than elsewhere in the public or private sector.
But he does believe council has moved toward a greater stranglehold on decision-making — pointing to community expectations and the fallout from the MFP scandal as reasons for grabbing more control from the administration.
“It’s a fine line, but we get elected and ultimately are held accountable,” he said. “It’s a reflection of the residents’ demands. This electorate is extremely involved and it raises the expectations.”
Low Ranking
A survey released in mid-July by Maclean’s magazine described Windsor as one of the worst-run cities in Canada. Windsor placed 23rd in efficiency and 28th in effectiveness resulting in an overall ranking of 26 out of 31 Canadian cities.
“Windsor was in that quadrant of cities that didn’t do a great job of saving money, and didn’t do a great job of providing effective service, which is not where you want your city to be,” said Sarmishta Subramanian, a senior editor at Maclean’s.
In terms of governance and finance, Windsor received Fs for its total revenues per capita and general government costs per capita.
“If I’m not mistaken, Windsor had one of the highest government costs per capita of any of the cities that we looked at,” Subramanian said.
Audits released by the city’s audit department, which itself has been hampered by resignations, have pointed to problems linked to the city’s high turnover at the top.
Out The Door
Mario Iatonna, director of operations — employed by Catholic School board
John Tofflemire, city engineer — employed by Leamington
Brenda Andreatta, city clerk — employed by the Town of LaSalle
Kit Woods, executive director pollution control services — employed by the Municipality of Leamington
Gord Harding, public works — retired
Lloyd Burridge, parks commissioner — retired
Mike Dunbar, city auditor —retired
Tony Haddad, director of finance — employed by Tecumseh
Dennis Perlin, CAO — CAO Halton Hills
Paul Bondy, development commission
Roman Dzus, deputy development commission
Tom Kosnik, president Enwin Powerlines — employed by OptiSolar Farms
Saad Jasim, water quality and production for WUC — employed by the Town of Walkerton
Roy Fritz, CEO, Enwin and WUC — employed by Sound Design Technologies in Toronto
Dan Piescic, building commission — employed by Lakeshore
Alfie Morgan, acting CAO — retired
Roman Martiuk, treasurer — city manager in Burlington
Susan Ellis, executive director social services — retired
Bill Baker, mayor’s office
Tim Berthiaume, deputy fire chief — deputy fire chief Calgary
Cheryl Horrobin, finance department — director finance and business services in Leamington
Gordon Orr, convention and vistors bureau — outgoing to be shifted to another city job
Steve Salmons, library CEO and senior city manager — special adviser on border issues for the provincial government
Brian Bell, library CEO — articling with local law firm
Mathew Fischer, CEO development commission — runs a consulting firm in London.
Remo Mancini, chairman development commission — serves on corporate boards
Dev Tyagi, general manager public works — recently terminated
John Skorobohacz, CAO —resigned seeking new job elsewhere
Elizabeth Hamel, tourism
Glenn Adams, public works — Kingsville public works, retired this year
Ed Link, building commissioner — retired
Judith Veresuk, DWBIA executive director — followed her husband to Vancouver where he took a job.
Debi Croucher, acting executive director DWBIA — operates a marketing and communications company.
© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star
Link:
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Revolving+door+costs+Windsor+money+reputation/2060978/story.html
