Senior Winnipeg city staff getting first performance review after years of delay

The City of Winnipeg's most senior employees are getting their first formal job performance evaluation after years of delay.

Soon after taking office last November, Mayor Scott Gillingham formed the statutory performance management committee, tasked with reviewing the performance of the four civil servants appointed directly by council — the chief administrative officer, chief financial officer, the head clerk and the city auditor.

Council under former mayor Brian Bowman first approved the committee in 2016, but a formal review was never conducted, and the committee dissolved in 2018.

"I just found it mind-boggling that there was no process in place, and that the former mayor didn't want to do it, and it's one of the first things that this current mayor did," said Coun. Janice Lukes, who serves as chair of the review committee.

The committee also includes Couns. Jeff Browaty, Evan Duncan and council speaker Devi Sharma. 

Earlier this week, Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt publicly called for the city to terminate CAO Michael Jack over his handling of a number of issues, including the response to a $5 million court penalty against the city stemming from a lawsuit by developer Andrew Marquess.

Wyatt was upset Jack had not fired city planner Michael Robinson, who King's Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy found had deliberately interfered with Marquess's plans to build 1,900 residential units on the former Parker lands.

Lukes wouldn't comment on her opinion of Jack's performance, but she noted during Bowman's time in office the city had five different people serve as either CAO or acting CAO, a position that oversees a staff of approximately 10,000.

"I don't want to throw Bowman under the bus, but I think a lot of things that happened were reflective of the fact that we didn't have a steady hand at the wheel," Lukes said.

The committee is still determining the structure of the review, including key performance indicators. Lukes had no timeline for when that work would be completed.

"Once we have our structure in place, we'll put that lens, that structure on the CAO and have a chat," she said.

Duncan shared Lukes's opinion that there are many issues with how the city is operating, such as long delays within the permit department, and concerns about snow clearing and road repair.

"The public is not happy," he said in an interview.

"I'm not prepared to call for anybody's head" at this point, Duncan said, but "the buck stops with the CAO."

'Harassment and bullying'

Duane Nicol is CAO with the City of Selkirk and president of Manitoba Municipal Administrators, a professional association of senior civil servants.

Regular internal performance reviews are important for ensuring city staff are meeting the goals set by council, but Nicol worries Wyatt's public call to fire Jack could amount to "workplace harassment and bullying" of an employee by an elected official.

"This is representative of a disturbing trend that we've seen, in municipal politicians punching down at CAOs and other senior management, or other employees of the municipalities," Nicol said in an interview.

In last year's election, candidates in many municipal races ran on platforms calling for the firing of senior staff, he said.

Nicol, who teaches the leadership in municipal management course at the University of Manitoba, said the "politicization" of the CAO position makes it harder for cities to attract quality candidates.

"The number of people entering the municipal public sector who say they don't want to be CAO, because they see how the CAO is treated publicly, is concerning," he said.

Wyatt says he plans to bring forward a motion calling for Jack's termination at the next meeting of council in September.

A vote to remove Jack from his position would require a vote of two-thirds of council members.