Clancy slated to become city CAO
Seabrooke stepping aside to become community services commissioner under shakeup
The city’s CAO plans to step down and take on another administrative job at City Hall, to be replaced by the current city treasurer.
CAO Allan Seabrooke is expected to step down as the city’s top bureaucrat. Sandra Clancy, the director of corporate services and city treasurer, would be promoted to CAO.
It’s all part of a proposed restructuring of the top administration jobs at City Hall announced late Wednesday by the city.
City councillors will be expected to discuss the plan at a meeting Monday.
Clancy has worked for the city for 33 years; she joined the staff in 1985 as chief accountant and has been treasurer and director of corporate services since 2011.
Meanwhile Seabrooke has been city CAO since June 2015.
The restructuring would also involve consolidating city services under three commissioners at City Hall who would report to the CAO. That would replace the current system, where five directors report to the CAO.
“This would reduce the size of the senior management team as the remaining director positions are phased out during retire-
ments this year,” states the press release.
The new commissioner positions would be:
Commissioner of community services. Commissioner of corporate and legislative services.
Commissioner of infrastructure and planning services.
Seabrooke plans to recommend to council that he be appointed to the job of commissioner of community services. Ken Doherty, the current director of community services, is retiring in June.
The idea behind the restructuring is to better coordinate services by grouping them together, Seabrooke states in a press release.
He also states that legal services and the city clerk’s department are separate, yet their work “is very much connected.”
“By aligning complementary services together, we can improve coordination between these services,” he states.
There are several projects underway in the community services department that Seabrooke would oversee as commissioner, the release states.
There’s a plan to build a new twin-pad arena and pool at Trent University, for example, as well as the prospective replacement of the Memorial Centre with a new sports and entertainment facility.
Seabrooke has experience in these areas: he previously worked as the commissioner of community services for the City of Waterloo.
Mayor Daryl Bennett stated in the release that he thinks Seabrooke is uniquely qualified for the prospective new job.
“Mr. Seabrooke has in-depth knowledge of the activities in this department and would bring continuity to our organization on these extremely important files at this time,” Bennett stated.
Bennett also endorses the idea of promoting Clancy to CAO, in the release.
“Mrs. Clancy is exceptionally qualified to lead the city’s administrative team through this transition and beyond,” he states.
Clancy states in the release that she would be “honoured” to take the CAO’s job. She also says the restructuring will help propel the administration into the future.
“These organizational changes would better prepare us to meet the needs of the community in the future,” she states.