City not married to its management structure
With two commissioner positions vacant and the search ongoing for a new CAO, St. Catharines may reassess its management model.
Mayor Walter Sendzik said the vacancies give the city an opportunity to review what the best structure is for the organization. That may or may not include the commissioner model in place since 2014.
“It will be up to council and the incoming new CAO to figure out what the best model is moving forward,” he said in an interview.
St. Catharines has a management structure that includes a commissioner of corporate services and a commissioner of operations who advise the CAO.
When former CAO Dan Carnegie retired on June 30, corporate services commissioner Shelley Chemnitz became acting CAO.
Operations commissioner Bryan Shynal announced in June that he’s retiring July 31.
Sendzik said a senior management transition team has been put together to fulfil the functions of the two commissioners while the CAO search is on. Senior managers have taken on expanded roles.
Sendzik said it allows the city to see how the organization operates as a whole with senior members in key positions and not necessarily under a commissioner structure.
“It’s council’s feeling that this would be the opportunity to allow members of the senior team more responsibility, to allow them to develop some further leadership skills, and at the same time not bind the hands of an incoming CAO to a structure that may not be the structure of choice for that individual, or senior team, or the council.”
The search for a permanent CAO moved forward on Monday with the establishment of a special ad hoc committee for the recruitment. Council appointed Grantham Coun. Bill Phillips and St. Andrew’s Coun. Matt Harris as their representatives with Sendzik on the committee.
The trio met on Wednesday with Legacy Executive Search Partners, the group awarded a contract by the city to conduct the recruitment.
Council as a whole will make the final selection.
Sendzik said if the hiring process goes as planned, the city should have a CAO chosen by October.
That person will work with staff and council on the management structure.
The city enacted a commissioner-based system under Carnegie and then-mayor Brian McMullan on March 31, 2014. The positions were filled in-house and the city said they didn’t result in job losses or increases in the city payroll.
The idea was to have commissioners who focused on planning three to five years down the road rather than being directly involved in day-to-day operations. They would anticipate future city needs and look at medium- and long-term goals.
“The role of the commissioners is to look further into the future and figure out, how are we going to be able to afford the growth of the city? How do we align with the strategic plan?” Sendzik said. “The current transition structure allows for more of the senior team to have that long-term thinking and be able to demonstrate how they view where we’re going as a city as well.”