Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac has relinquished one of his strong mayor powers by delegating the authority to hire and fire city staff back to the city's chief administrative officer (CAO).
The move was made through a Mayoral Direction statement, dated April 17, but published on the city's website Monday.
The move transfers the authority from McIsaac to Amanpreet Singh Sidhu, the CAO appointed by the mayor using strong mayor powers on April 7.
"The correct place for that authority to reside is with the CAO. They run the city departments and they should have that authority," McIsaac said.
"I decided that a week or 10 days ago and asked the clerk to prepare the paperwork," McIsaac told OrilliaMatters.
Strong mayor powers were granted to McIsaac April 3 to deal with the ice storm that plunged the entire city into darkness, prompting the declaration of a state of emergency.
The mayor's first use of his new powers was to rescind the employment offer of CAO made to Trevor Lee of Guelph; instead he appointed Sidhu to the position.
This has proven controversial with the community and with most members of council as McIsaac as yet to explain his reason for changing the CAO hiring, after Lee was approved by staff and council and endorsed by the mayor in a media release issued a few days before the ice storm.
Lee was to start working as the CAO on April 14. He had left his job in Guelph and had put his house up for sale.
Since the change in CAO position, Sidhu has not been present at council. Specifically, Sidhu was not present for the April 7 council meeting and not present for the special meeting of council on April 15 that was called specifically to get legal advice around strong mayor powers and McIsaac's use of them.
That meeting was cut short as a municipal lawyer — one not employed by the city — was requested but was not present.
That meeting will be held this week on Wednesday or Thursday; the date and time of which is expected to be announced tomorrow.
Despite not being present at council, Sidhu has been the CAO since April 7, said McIsaac.
The Mayoral Direction gives back the hiring/firing authority to the CAO and processes return to "normal," meaning that issues around personnel will be brought to council to be discussed in a closed session like they had been before strong mayor powers were granted to McIsaac.
However, McIsaac will be keeping the rest of the strong mayor powers, he said, which can including vetoing certain bylaws, appointing committee chairs and tabling a budget.
"I've had discussions with the CAO and we are aligned on the budget," said McIsaac.
"We will make the capital budget public so people can see it and have their input. Whatever capital projects are I want to make sure we listen ... and include those and I will include council in that process as well," he said.
The completed capital budget will be coming to council on June 23.
The same method will be taken for the full annual budget with public and council inputs, he added.
"The priorities will help define what our budget is," McIsaac said.
