Two senior staff members are no longer employed by the City of Cambridge, but officials have not disclosed the reasons for or nature of their departures. This comes on the heels of a recent strong mayor decision that shifted certain administrative powers back to Mayor Jan Liggett.
Following up on a news tip, CambridgeToday has learned that chief planner Bob Bjerke and manager of special events Matt Cuthbert are no longer employed by the city as of this week.
An automatic email response from Bjerke’s city account stated that he is no longer with the City of Cambridge. Bjerke had been chief planner for less than a year and was a replacement for Lisa Prime who left the role in May 2024. CambridgeToday last received an email from Bjerke on Friday regarding a story about the city's affordable housing reserve fund.
He had previously held other city planning or housing positions with Regina, Edmonton, Halifax and Brampton.
When attempting to reach Cuthbert’s city phone extension, a city phone operator confirmed he is no longer employed by the municipality.
According to his LinkedIn, Cuthbert started as manager of special events for Cambridge in October 2024 and previously held roles with Newmarket and Brantford.
Under Ontario's 'strong mayor' legislation—introduced to give mayors more executive authority—the mayor’s powers include the ability to appoint or dismiss the CAO, city manager and various senior managers.
In a mayoral decision dated and effective May 26, Liggett rescinded a previous decision to delegate the power to hire and dismiss certain city officials to the city manager.
City spokesperson Alana Russell said the city does not comment on human resource matters. However, she added the mayoral decision issued is for "preparation for the upcoming recruitment process for a city manager."
Earlier in May, the city announced David Calder, city manager, would be retiring from his role in September.
A request for comment from the mayor or her office was not immediately returned.
At Tuesday evening’s council meeting, Liggett said she and some other councillors were going to Ottawa on Wednesday for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.
