Chris Murray: Toronto gets a collaborator

City manager knows he’ll hit quicksand. The secret is not to struggle too much

On Monday, after almost 10 years as Hamilton’s top city official, Chris Murray starts his new job as city manager of Toronto.

That same day Hamilton councillors will officially discuss the recruitment process for finding Murray’s replacement.

It goes without saying the personable and forward-looking Murray will be a hard act to follow. But don’t ask him about his legacy projects. Murray believes assigning the success of any project to one person smacks too much of ego given the large number of people who are always involved.

“Some people say you’re just being modest,” Murray says. “No, I think I’m being accurate.”

Yes, Hamilton is on a roll and city hall has incented the momentum. But the things Murray, 56, is most proud of are the things that generally glaze people’s eyes: performance measurements, continuous improvement processes, senior leadership succession planning, and maintaining good relations between staff and council.

The simple fact is, at his job level there is a distinction between working in an organization and working on the organization. The more senior you are, Murray says, the more you work on the organization.

In Toronto, the scale will be much larger. Here he skippered an outfit with about 7,200 employees and a tax and rate supported operating budget of $1.7 billion. In Toronto, he’ll be accountable for 36,000 employees and operating budget of about $12.8 billion.

That’s quite a leap, considering 10 years ago he was the director of city housing who vaulted over other senior managers to become Hamilton’s top bureaucrat, largely on the strength of his previous leadership role on the controversial Red Hill Valley Parkway project.

Although greeted coolly at first by his senior team — one bluntly told him he was in over his head — Murray’s collaborative style soon won them over and, for the first time since amalgamation, a leadership crew emerged whose relationship with council was distinctly positive.

Originally from New Brunswick, Murray lived in Toronto from 1987 until 1995 when he moved to Hamilton.

If there’s a knock against him as city manager, it’s that he’s too compliant with his political masters. But those who remember the day he threatened to remove his entire senior team from a meeting to protect them from browbeating by some councillors know he is no pushover.

He is, however, the quintessential interest-based negotiator who never loses sight of the importance of relationships in achieving mutually acceptable goals. He says a personality test given to him as part of his job interview in Toronto identified him as a productive collaborator, relatable, approachable, and a reasonably good listener.

On the negative side, he was pegged as prone to getting frustrated. He’s very conscious of the latter. He says a city manager’s job is like walking through a jungle and hitting quicksand. “It’s not a question if, it’s when you’re going to hit it. And if you struggle you’ll sink faster.”

But, he says, if you remain calm and you’ve built relationships with people, generally speaking, they’ll help you out. “So I’ve always relied on people’s good advice when I feel things are getting bogged down.”

His striving for connections resulted in the Day in the Life program in which Murray touched base with front line staffers for at least half a day each month. He dug graves, trimmed trees, and checked parking infractions with them. He plans to do the same in Toronto.

He’s keeping the family home in Dundas but expects to get an apartment or condo in Toronto for practical purposes. On Monday he’ll go in by car because he has some stuff to bring to his new office. But he has his Presto transit card all set up for the GO train commute. Like other commuters, he’s looking forward to the day when Hamilton gets two-way all-day service to Toronto.

Finally, no, Premier Doug Ford’s plan to chop the size of Toronto council hasn’t given him pause about the new challenge. As he’s demonstrated over and over again in Hamilton, he is the model public servant whose job is to serve whoever is elected.

Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. adreschel@thespec.com @AndrewDreschel 905-526-3495