More Fun And Games At City Hall

The story out of city hall this week has been the “departures” of two senior administrators and the elevation of Helga Reidel to the Chief Administration Officer position. Since returning from a six month exile to Innisfil, Ontario over five years ago, John Skorobohacz, has been working on a Service Delivery review, and in some twisted spin on logic, from the Windsor Star, the moves are explained by saying, “ the streamlining process at city hall that had Skorobohacz design himself out of a job.” What? How is it possible to design away a job yet in the next breath promote another person into that position?


Skorobohacz better explains his exit.

“It's a lonely position ... [that] can lead to burnout very quickly," said Skorobohacz, who advised council at the time of his hiring that he envisioned a five-year stay. "I believe every CAO has a best-before date ... now is the appropriate time to pass the torch," he said.

I don't think that's quite accurate either, but more on that later.

Over the next 12 to 15 months he’ll go on to collect his full salary. Somewhat unusual, for someone who walks away from a job, to collect severance, but not unheard of. If Skorobohacz has an employment contract with a pre-specified end date, it would stand to reason that a severance package would be negotiated at that time as well. However a year or more at full pay is a bit much for the tax payer to fork out, in addition to the spending rampage Eddie has been on over the last two years.

I don’t begrudge John a severance. More power to him if he’s able to negotiate that for himself. I’m sure none of us would decline the offer of a full year’s salary under the same circumstances. The ones to blame for the excessive amount is the mayor and council who approved the “stipend”. Thanks Eddie.

But I don’t think it's as clear cut as we’re led to believe.

I don’t think Skorobohacz and Eddie can work together any longer. An indication of that was the Caboto Fiasco during the 101 day CUPE strike this past summer. Supposedly to get his version of a back to work protocol to the workers (for some reason the city left it out of the contract offer) managers were sent to the Caboto Club where the employees were to vote on the proposal. Against the advice of the CAO, managers were ordered to attend the club by the mayor, and were placed in a “dangerous position”.

Skorobohacz, who usually avoided the limelight, surprised many when he issued a strong public rebuke of the mayor in the midst of the 101-day civic strike. After Francis ignored his advice and dispatched managers to deliver leaflets to strikers at a union vote at the Caboto Club in July, Skorobohacz sent an e-mail to employees and openly apologized to staff.

In an email sent to the mayor and council, Skorobohacz said, “In my 28 years of employment in the field of municipal administration, this has been the low point in my career. This is an action I deeply regret as these employees were placed in a difficult and potentially dangerous situation,”

I theorize that the mayor made it appealing enough to the CAO to retire early, despite John’s public claim that he had planned to stay only five years.

So with the CAO out of the way, who now to appoint into the position? Usually, when there is an end date to a contract position and the incumbent is known to not be returning, a search for a replacement is made. It can take from 6 months to a year to find and interview suitable candidates and for the chosen one to arrange to leave their current employer. That makes the CAO’s sudden departure all the more suspicious.

Enter Helga Reidel. In her former role as General Manager of Corporate Services, Helga lead the city’s negotiating team during the strike. As we all are aware from Councilor Postma’s blog, Reidel’s and the team’s hands were tied during the negotiation process. Continuously the mayor intervened during the progression of talks, and likely his interfering prolonged and overly personalized the strike. Obviously the mayor found a person who would not stand up to him like Skorobohacz would.

And that is the worst part of it. The mayor appears to be surrounding himself with persons of his choosing. Expect more changes to upper management to come over the next few weeks. More people who apparently won’t do what’s right, necessarily, but simply what the mayor wants. Why? I think Eddie intends to run for another term as mayor. A term that would end in 2014, right in line with the 4-5 year contracts these persons would be entering into.

We’ll see who’s left standing when the music stops.