Mayor of Coteau-du-Lac explains why he axed his top civil servants.
Insists fire chief’s exit won’t compromise safety
Coteau-du-Lac Mayor Guy Jasmin says he recently dismissed four senior administrators, including the town’s fire chief and three department heads, because “there were too many chiefs for the number of Indians.”
“I had to cut certain positions because they were unnecessary. Taxes were going up and up and taxpayers’ salaries are not going up,” Jasmin told The Gazette in an interview.
Jasmin said Coteau-du-Lac, which is about 20 kilometres west of Vaudreuil-Dorion on Highway 20, has grown from 5,500 people about eight years ago to 7,200 now. But its workforce has grown disproportionately, tripling from 10 employees to more than 30 over that time.
He said the manager-to-employee ratio was 1 to 1.75 before he eliminated the jobs of fire chief, director of urban planning and environmental services, director of public works and director of community services. After these and other cuts, the ratio is now closer to 1 to 4, Jasmin said, while other towns in Quebec have a ratio of 1 to 8.
Gilles Besner, the city manager, quit earlier this year, as did the town’s treasurer and director of technical services. The town clerk was suspended in May, allegedly after criticizing a proposal to cut vacation time for town employees.
“This restructuring was mainly for economic reasons, and also to make the city function better,” Jasmin told The Gazette. “There were too many chiefs for the number of Indians.”
He has hired a new city manager, Luc Laberge, who is taking over the functions of the three director jobs that were eliminated.
Jasmin said the assistant fire chief is now the de facto chief and can do the work the chief was doing. The firefighters in Coteau-du-Lac are not full-time firefighters, although they are trained and paid for their time and labour when they are called to an emergency.
Jasmin insisted that the change in no way compromises public safety and that the fire department, as always, can call for assistance from other towns if necessary.
Interim Fire Chief Daniel Hamel echoed that assessment.
“There is absolutely no risk to the com- munity,” Hamel said.
“We are functioning in exactly the same way we would if the chief were on vacation.”
Hamel declined to comment on whether he thinks the decision to eliminate the fire chief ’s job was wise, or whether the chief left voluntarily.
He said he has been in talks with city officials about whether he will take over the job permanently.
Jasmin said the job cuts are over, for now, and that the new, leaner management team is capable of running the town effectively.
Jasmin, a chartered accountant by trade, said the town’s taxes went down by 10 per cent during his first year in office — he was elected last November — mainly due to a renegotiation of the garbage collection contract from $500,000 to $350,000 a year. He said his cuts to senior staff and other employees, as well as other cost-saving measures, could result in another 10-per-cent reduction in taxes next year.
Jasmin was elected by a slim margin, beating out longtime mayor Robert Sauvé.
“People wanted a change,” Jasmin said, adding that he campaigned on promises to streamline the town’s workforce and update its bylaws.