Burlington residents who want to delegate to the Burlington City Council a challenge launched against Mayor Marianne Mead Ward's exercise of strong mayoral powers must register by noon Monday according to the posted agenda. Otherwise, the only formal public comment comes through letters from residents who oppose strong mayoral powers unless they are accompanied by a mechanism to force the recall of city council members.
The news that two senior staff members are no longer employed by the city was announced after last Tuesday's City Council meeting. There, four councilors introduced a motion asking the mayor to delegate control over the hiring and firing of senior staff. However, the Bay Observer has learned that the departure could have taken place sooner. Our emails asking councilors whether their resignations triggered a motion to take hiring and firing control away from the mayor have so far been ignored.
Things seemed to come to a head last week when it was confirmed that Bryn Neilly, executive director of regional planning, and Sheila Jones, executive director of strategy, risk and accountability, were leaving the city. This comes several months after the retirement of city employee Kevin Arjun, who disappeared without notice in January, and the retirement of Kwabu Ako-Adjei, director of corporate communications and government relations, who was only allowed to retire after his replacement was appointed. announced within. . The city also hired a new city attorney last year. In addition, City Manager Tim Commisso announced his term would end later this year, and longtime Treasurer Joan Ford, who told council the fiscal year 2024 budget would be her last, was marked by mass departures of key staff. It revealed a clearly toxic workplace situation. It cannot be ignored.
Morale problems are clearly not limited to the upper echelons of a company. Last fall, the City Council presented a sobering report that found Burlington had lost 389 employees, or nearly 44 percent of its full-time workforce, in the past two years, and that more than half of its administrative staff had less than two years of experience in their positions. was submitted. . His 60% of retired employees left within three years of joining the company. At any given time in 2023, 14% of the city's positions were vacant and it took an average of 14 weeks to fill a position.
These facts give special meaning to the comments posted by City Manager Commisso in the 2022-23 performance review, which primarily focused on staff morale. Noting that a staff survey showed only 67 percent of staff feel positive about working for the City of Burlington, he said, “This result is concerning to me, and I am prioritizing improving this score.” We need to work on it,” he commented. FYI, a new citywide culture survey is planned for this year, and action can be taken to bring the actual score in 2024 closer to the 80% goal (previously achieved in 2021). It is very important and needs to be a common goal. ” The findings have not been made public, but given the exodus of key leaders in recent months, it is unlikely that there will be any significant improvement.
City Councilor Lisa Kearns alluded to a climate of fear among staff in her remarks at last week's meeting, using the phrase “sticking your nose” to describe the council's proper role in dealing with city staff. was used. That is clearly not what is happening at Burlington City Hall. I hope this issue is fully and publicly withdrawn on Tuesday. The behind-the-scenes complaining has been going on for far too long, so it's time to clear the air. In Burlington, there has been poor media coverage and largely unquestioned coverage for far too long, and the community is suffering the consequences of what they don't know.
