City staff shuffle makes fiscal sense (what we know of it)

A reorganization of the senior management structure at City Hall is all about paying higher salaries, which is actually a necessary change.

Bumping up bureaucrats’ pay packets is never popular, however. That’s why higher salaries are packaged with a cut in the number of director-level jobs.

In the end, that process should be a wash in terms of annual payroll costs.

On the negative side, the reorganization approved by city council Monday night is short on transparency. Taxpayers are being told salaries will go up, but not how much. Those salaries are all public information. They will be published next spring as part of Ontario’s Sunshine List.

Why wait? The city should drop its overprotective policy and let people see the financial details behind this executive job swap.

Coun. Keith Riel made that point on Monday and got nowhere. Even your councillors don’t know what city staff are being paid.

Still, the changes do make sense.

In the past, we’ve applauded the city for holding management salaries in check. But prudence has reached a point where pay grades really are low enough to create problems in attracting good candidates for crucial jobs.

A quick survey of CAO salaries in comparable cities confirms that. Peterborough CAO Allan Seabrooke made $178,436 last year. His counterpart in Brantford was paid $221,320; the CAO of Sudbury $261,000.

When Peterborough once again looks for a CAO, likely in the next few years, it will hope to draw interest from across Canada and will be competing with cities of similar size.

Prince George, B.C., pays its current CAO $222,000. Victoria, B.C., population 86,000, pays $235,000; Moncton, N.B., $198,500 (all those figures are published and easy to find).

Salary grids for directors and managers in other communities are correspondingly higher than what Peterborough pays.

The low-salary effect came into play two years ago when Peterborough needed a new planning director. Jeffrey Humble was hired out of the same job in Yellowknife, NWT, population 19,000.

The fact that Humble made such a big leap up doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t up to the job. But in the current reorganization, he is the only director losing some responsibility.

The management structure change is basic. Instead of a CAO and five directors, there will be a CAO and three commissioners.

One wrinkle is that Seabrooke moves down from the CAO job to become a commissioner. Current corporate services director Sandra Clancy moves up to become CAO. We may never know exactly why Seabrooke took a demotion, but it seems likely he was OK with it.

It also seems likely this shift is part of the city’s “succession planning” strategy.

Clancy has been at City Hall for more than 30 years. She could leave today with a full pension. Wayne Jackson, the current utility services director who will become a commissioner, has said he will retire in 14 months.

Community services director Ken Doherty leaves in a few weeks and will not be replaced.

A more competitive salary structure should put the city in a better position when Seabrooke, Clancy and Jackson all go.

However, while two director positions were cut, only Doherty’s $154,000 salary disappears. It will be interesting to see how that amount is parceled out in raises — something we won’t know until next year’s Sunshine List peeks over the horizon.