After 15 years, the City of Timmins has a new Chief Administrative Officer.
Thursday evening's city budget discussion was Joe Torlone's final meeting in the position. Nestled in his familiar spot on the Mayor's right and near the projector screen, Torlone humbly listened to kind words from Mayor Steve Black.
"I want to thank our CAO for his approximately 38 years of service in the municipal world, and many years of service as the Captain of our ship here at the City of Timmins," said Black.
"I can tell you, working with Joe in this capacity as Mayor for the last two years, the amount of hours and effort that Joe dedicates to our municipality, day-in day-out, is second to none."
Black spoke about the respect all of the mayors Torlone had worked with have for him, and how much of a poppa bear mentality he had for his staff.
"I know from sitting up here, sometimes when the discussions deviate a little from where they should be in regards to staff, that Joe takes it personally, and it hurts him personally, just because of how much he cares for his staff," said Black.
After praising Torlone for his tireless work on major projects around the municipality over his tenure, such as helping facilitate the Timmins Stratospheric Balloon Base at the Victor M. Power Airport.
Black said Torlone will 'stay on in a volunteer capacity' for the 'Stars and Thunder' festival this summer.
The outgoing CAO has had plenty of advice for the incoming.
"Over the last three weeks, he's pretty well been information fed through a fire hose. My best advice to him was to sit back, to listen, this is a large organization. David's been around, we've worked together actually for a few years before, so take it one day at a time, and he'll do well," Torlone told TimminsToday after the meeting.
Landers began his career with the City of Timmins as a field worker in the department of Social and Family Services.
"When the DSSAB was created, social services was moved over, so I continued to work there and over the years, moved to the position of Chief Administrative Officer of the Cochrane District. That gave me an opportunity to work with a vast array of individuals doing everything from finance, to human resources, to service delivery, and I enjoyed that sort of work. Strangely, I find that administration is a place where I should be, and I believe that my skills are suited for it," said Landers.
He has upgraded his education over the years to include a Master's degree in business. He said when he heard the city's top position was available, it seemed like a natural fit, as he wanted to continue to deliver good public service.
Landers was born and raised in 'The City with the Heart of Gold' and has a family connection to city work.
"I went away, like many of us do for education, and decided to come back for a career and lifestyle as well. My roots are in Timmins, and my mother is actually a former City of Timmins employee. There's something kind of neat about coming back to a place where I started my career, and she ended hers."
He believes his experience at the DSSAB will help him tremendously in his new role, as he has a strong familiarity with many of the local movers and shakers.
"At the DSSAB I worked with most of the city council, in fact seven of the nine members of council were on the DSSAB board. As well as working with members of council from all over the Cochrane District. In addition, at the DSSAB I did a lot of government relations work, and it seems for the municipality that's something we're going to have to continue to do here, in order to make sure that we get the support from other levels of government to meet the needs of our citizens," said Landers.
The ongoing issue of 'fairness' in the current funding model for the DSSAB is something that Landers says is 'near and dear' to him.
"Mayor Black has done a good analysis of the cost and the service, and makes a strong argument that Timmins residents need some support from elsewhere. The challenge is that the Highway 11 communities are also in a difficult position, and I can see why they wouldn't want to take on more cost at this point in time. Timmins, I would say, is uniquely situated in Ontario in this situation," he said, adding that more talks and meetings have taken place recently.
"There has to be a better solution that just moving costs onto smaller municipalities around Highway 11 for a business model that isn't really structured to meet the needs of the regional economy either," said Landers.
Longtime city CAO Joe Torlone had one last budget meeting to sit through. Andrew Autio for TimminsToday Having observed many meetings in the last few months, there are some things he has noticed.
"This council is a very activist council. From the outside looking in, I didn't see quite clearly how involved they are in the issues. The Councillors are very dedicated to their role and are putting in lots of hours, and that's a good thing. The issues at council seem to, in my opinion, fall into two categories, community development and fiscal responsibility. Everyone is making a good argument, when the arguments arise. That being said, there seems to be more concurrence on issues than we typically notice," said Landers.
He said he has been working closely with Torlone for over three weeks now, preparing for the transition.
"He's been fantastic. Joe has always been a class act, and continues to be. His advice has been fairly straightforward, its rely on the people who are in the positions that they're in to deliver in the manner that they can. There's a very talented team here at the city, and I'm in a position to work with some really smart people who care about moving the municipal agenda forward," he said.
Landers says he is excited to get to work on some of the major projects upcoming in the city, such as the 'Stars and Thunder' festival, the new aquatic centre project, and DSSAB funding model.
