A Change.org petition has been started calling on Orillia to reinstate Trevor Lee as the new chief administrative officer (CAO).
The petition was started Thursday by Ellen Wolper, owner of Paper Kapers in downtown Orillia. As of Friday afternoon, the petition had five signatures.
"For crying out loud; the guy was hired already," wrote Wolper in the petition comments as the first signatory.
"Over the last two years, we have experienced especially challenging politics in our community of Orillia," Wolper wrote in the petition. "It is our firm belief that to overcome this, we need a new perspective — someone from outside who can bring their fresh insights and innovative ideas to the table. This is why we're urging our city's leadership to appoint Trevor Lee as our chief administrative officer (CAO)," wrote Wolper who has been an outspoken critic of city council and some of its decisions.
"Trevor Lee's vast knowledge, vast experience, and proven leadership skills make him the ideal choice to navigate Orillia towards a prosperous future. It is time to go beyond familiar circles and bring in the change that Orillia needs. Therefore, we call on the mayor to make this necessary and positive change by appointing Trevor Lee as Orillia's chief administrative officer as planned.
"Let's bring fresh leadership to Orillia. Please sign this petition and support Trevor Lee's appointment as CAO."
OrilliaMatters called Wolper on Friday but was unable to reach her as she was at an event without her phone.
The petition stems from the first action taken by Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac when he received strong mayor powers on April 3 to assist with the ice storm emergency. He used the power to cancel the appointment of Lee, who was scheduled to start on April 14. Lee had been to city hall to meet his colleagues pick up a laptop and had been endorsed publicly by McIsaac.
On April 7, council and the public found out McIsaac essentially fired Lee in favour of Amanpreet Singh Sidhu, the city's deputy CAO and solicitor.
In a mayoral direction letter, McIsaac wrote, in accordance with special powers and duties of head of council, that Sidhu be appointed CAO and that the appointment of Lee be revoked.
His explanation for the change of CAO was put in a second letter to council, saying the city is "truly at a critical point in Orillia's history."
"I am confident that with Amanpreet's leadership and the strength of our staff team, we will not only recover from this crisis, we will emerge stronger and more unified in our mission to serve the people of Orillia."
The majority of council is against strong mayor powers and passed a motion for Robert Flack, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, to immediately rescind the mayor's strong mayor powers.
But on April 9, the province announced 169 more municipalities would be getting strong mayor powers as of May 1, including Orillia, and that these would be permanent.
Lee expressed his shock at the change of plans as he and his family were preparing for the move from Guelph.
