Another one bites the dust: Turnover continues in Vaughan city manager's office

Interim city manager Tim Simmonds, fourth person to serve in post since 2013, left Feb. 14

Yorkregion.com
February 28, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Tim Simmonds, who filled in as interim city manager last year, served his last day as Vaughan's top bureaucrat Friday Feb. 14.

“Tim Simmonds has decided to move on from the City of Vaughan,” the city said in an emailed statement. “The City extends sincere gratitude to Tim for his service to the City and wishes him the very best in his future.”

The departure heralds the end of a long chapter for Simmonds, who started working for the city in 2009.

He “spent the next decade advancing through the organization, taking on expanded roles and responsibilities which culminated in his appointment as Interim City Manager,” read a short, online biography on the city's webpage, which has since been removed.

The city said in an email to the Vaughan Citizen that the “process to fill the city manager position on a permanent basis continues.” (A city manager is the hired executive officer of a municipality who works outside of the political realm to keep operations working smoothly.)

It added: “The Council has decided that the role of Acting City Manager will be held on a rotating basis beginning with Mary Reali," who is the deputy city manager, community cervices.

In addition, Jason Schmidt-Shoukri, the deputy city manager, planning and growth management, is also on temporary leave. “Bill Kiru is serving as Acting Deputy City Manager of the Planning and Growth Management portfolio,” the city explained in its email.

However, when the Vaughan Citizen asked the city for more explanation, the city responded by email stating that it “cannot comment further on matters related to individual employees.”

Since 2013, the city has had four different city managers, two of them interim.

Previous city managers

On June 27, 2016, Vaughan hired Daniel Kostopoulos, who previously filled the role as York Region’s commissioner of transportation services, as the new city manager.

But on April 1, 2019, King Township announced the appointment of Kostopoulos as its new chief administrative officer.

Kostopoulos replaced Steve Kanellakos, who had tendered his resignation less than a year after landing in Vaughan, to become city manager at the City of Ottawa, his previous employer. Kanellakos, who had been headhunted by the City of Vaughan, decided to go back to Ottawa because the city manager there retired.

The Vaughan Citizen asked Kostopoulos why it seems that there is no stability when it comes to the role of city manager of Vaughan. In an email, he said: “I cannot comment or speculate on reasons related to the tenure of other City Managers. Perhaps officials at the City of Vaughan may be better positioned to respond to these inquiries.

“I enjoyed the energy, great staff team and community culture at Vaughan while I was city manager,” Kostopoulos stated.

“It’s been a year since I worked there and have since moved on in my career,” he added.

Abrupt changes in 2013

When Kanellakos came to Vaughan, he took over the reins from Barbara Cribbett, a former treasurer who retired after serving as interim city manager for two years, following the abrupt departure of Clayton Harris in April 2013.

The trend of not having a city manager long-term began when Harris left his Vaughan city manager position. The council, at the time, announced that he had retired without notice. He was paid two years' severance. He has since held several other positions in municipal government elsewhere in the province.

During his tenure in Vaughan, Harris served as commissioner of finance before becoming deputy city manager in 2007 and city manager in 2009. A few months after his sudden departure, 15 more city staffers were terminated.

Later, Vaughan councillors agreed to pay $17.125 million to settle a lawsuit related to construction of the city hall, which ran millions over budget and took 18 months longer than projected to complete.

In a July 2013 interview with York Region, Cribbett said the changes made had no connection to Harris’s retirement, or the firing of four senior staff.

Harris is now living in Parry Sound. He was first named the Town of Parry Sound’s part-time economic development officer and then the Township of Whitestone’s interim chief administrative officer in 2017. Harris is now the chief administrative officer of the township 40 kilometres northeast of Parry Sound.